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(part 1):
New shopping, new life: (Which is intended to help Your Correspondent supplement his disability benefits, for the most part, as well as Some Good Causes, foremost among them being Reduction of the U.S. National Debt):
(part 2):
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ACKNOWLEDGING SERIOUS LAPSES IN FEDERALLY-MANDATED SAFETY INSPECTIONS BEING CARRIED OUT @ REGULAR INTERVALS, Southwest Airlines has announced where it has grounded 41 of its Boeing 737 aircraft for the time being to carry out safety checks after hairline cracks were discovered that were not detected in previous inspections.
Which, for an airline as has this arrogant repute for cheap fares and frequent flights, should be enough to shame them into recognising our complacent air-mindedness as a "morally superior" society.
And, for once, ought be enough for us to start rethinking this complacent air-mindedness, especially with fuel prices now rather dear (in fact, the NYMEX crude price is @ a new record of $110/bbl--and you can blame it, in large measure, on His Fraudulency's misadventures in the guise of a War on Terrorism based on flimsy evidence.
(Evidence now shown to be all the more flimsy after new evidence confirms lack of His Fraudulency's interconnexion between the Saddam Hussein regime and al-Qaeda.)
Mr. Bill O'Reilly Fox News Channel 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. O'Reilly:
As but one American, I deem it necessary to take issue with you in the strongest possible terms for the Information Stuporbahn for that dirty little habit you have over recent days of equating what you see as being "dangerous" left-wing websites (in particular The Huffington Post) with Nazi-era propaganda techniques used to attack real or imagined enemies, howbeit without credible proof or substantiation.
(Examples documented by Media Matters for America in this respect can be seen here and here. In other words, "you knew what you were doing.")
Which, for starters, begs the question of whether or not you may be guilty of projection in the psychiatric sense--shifting onto your enemies, real or imagined, the problems you're unwittingly and/or unconsciously bringing on yourself. I call your attention to these very words from your very lips, as transcribed by MediaMatters (emphasis supplied):
First you have to demonize; first you have to create the hatred. Then you can take action. Now the hatred is by left against left. That's what's going on there.
With those words in mind, I would like to bring up @ this time the name of Julius Streicher, a high-ranking Nazi Party majordomo out of Nuremburg who epitomised such an approach by way of the tabloid weekly Der Sturmer ("The Attacker;" motto, "A German Weekly Newspaper in the Fight for Truth"), which Herr Streicher founded in 1923 and continued, practically single-handedly, until just before the Nazi defeat in 1945.
Streicher's forte was anti-Semitism used in interconnexion to sex and/or scandal, with the crudest of pornography incorporated to better appeal to its readers--for the most part, children and the Dregs of Nazi German society (as the Lower Working Classes, for example)--explaining its "written-so-you-can-understand-it" hypersimplicity. Said hypersimplicity reinforced with the cartoons of "Fips" (t/n Philipp Rupprecht) depicting Jews in the most offensive caricatures still used by the Archie Bunker/Alf Garnett crowd to whip up anti-Semitic hate: fat, gross, disgusting-looking, filthy, drooling in their greed, sexually inclined all the more towards pedophilia, usw.
Or, for a change of pace, depicting Jews as the lowest forms of vermin threatening "Aryan Racial Honour" (snakes, rats and monkeys were particular favourites for such anti-Semitic allegory in cartoon form).
Not to mention an arrogant pride being taken in news that Der Sturmer was especially popular among school-aged boys attracted to its crudely pornographic descriptions of homosexuality and prostitution, and their interconnexions (or so alleged) to Jews and Jewry.
All in all, enough to attract readers galore: From an average of 14,000 copies/week in Weimar-era 1927, Der Sturmer's circulation, thanks to impressive marketing techniques including strong-arm tactics involving various Nazi-affiliated organisations, would climb to a peak of 486,000 copies/week by 1935, not counting the many untold millions who glanced @ the latest editions in display cases installed practically everywhere across the Third Reich groups of people would naturally gather (factory lunchrooms, tram and bus stops, railway stations, even local parks were favourite locales therefor).
As if that weren't enough, no less than Adolf Hitler "himself" was so impressed by Der Sturmer's "written-so-you-can-understand-it" approach to exploiting anti-Semitic feelings, it was said that Der Fuerher read every edition throughout every week. And some of the more influential leaders in the regime endorsed Der Sturmer as essential to the cause of "patriotic" anti-Semitism in fawning terms such as these from Gauleiter of Danzig Albert Forster:
With pleasure I say that the Stürmer, more than any other daily or weekly newspaper, has made clear to the people in simple ways the danger of Jewry.
Without Julius Streicher and his Stürmer, the importance of a solution to the Jewish question would not be seen to be as critical as it actually is by many citizens.
It is therefore to be hoped that those who want to learn the unvarnished truth about the Jewish question will read the Stürmer.
As if that weren't enough, Ernst Heimer, editor of Der Sturmer, thus defended its hypersimplified approach to anti-Semitism in an essay thus published in 1935:
The Stürmer is the paper of the people. Its language is simple, its sentences clear. Its words have one meaning. Its tone is rough. It has to be! The Stürmer is not a Sunday paper. The Stürmer fights for truth. A fight is not fought with kid gloves. And the truth is not smooth and slippery. It is rough and hard.
And make no mistake about it: Der Sturmer's crudity of anti-Semitism was enough to translate into the wholesale genocide of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany or areas under its control by means including, but not necessarily limited to:
"delousing" showers as were really gas chambers, followed by cremation;
firing squads arranged so that the corpses would fall into freshly-dug mass graves;
overwork on forced-labour gangs (in some extreme cases, reinforced by sadistic abuse from supervisors); and
use as "guinea pigs" in "medical experiments" of dubious or otherwise questionable merit.
And it was because of Der Sturmer's power in influencing such depravity of anti-Semitic opinion, and its inevitable result, that Herr Streicher was among those high-level leaders of the Nazi regime brought before the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal in 1945-46 to answer charges of Crimes Against Humanity and Peace brought by the Four Allied Powers (the United States, Great Britain, France and the then-Soviet Union).
With that in mind, then, what sense of Decency have you, Mr. "No-Spin Zone," to equate those exercising their right to free expression and speech online to the Nazi regime and its depraved excesses and travesties of power and authority when it's really you as should be guilty of these same charges?
Or what prevents your recognising any sense of Decency, let alone Morals and Common Sense, in that which I have just discussed?
MEMO TO READERS: You are strongly urged to share this with all your friends, especially such as are so hard-wired into their blind acceptance of Fox News Channel as Holy Writ, so to speak.
Especially so to Mr. "No-Spin Zone" "himself," who deserves this message all the more. Especially because of its citing historical facts as are well-documented, and which should serve as warning to future generations.
Especially in this instance. Remember, "silence=acceptance."
MEMO TO TEACHERS WHO MIGHT FIND TEMPTING the offer of $10,000 just to quit your job, only to wind up becoming nothing less than a windup toy for Rick Berman, longtime shill for "the Four Hundred" who still see labour unions as some class of a "Communist front organisation," thanks to Brave New Films' blog:
What anti-union creep Rick Berman is up to today is appalling, and I say that not just because I'm the proud son of an AFT member. Berman just launched a campaign to weed out the "worst unionized teachers in America." Berman and the Center for Union Politics will ask parents, students, and other teachers to nominate these "bad" educators and then he plans to offer the ten worst $10,000 each to quit. His group will be running ads in USA Today, The New York Times, and on TV.
Perhaps Berman should have paid a little more attention in school to realize his reasoning is spurious and his methods are wholly unscientific. Why does our country insist on blaming teachers for our awful education system? It couldn't be No Child Left Behind, lack of funds, or overcrowded classrooms.
Berman has long been a foe of teachers unions, but this latest ploy is a new low for the corporate hack. American Rights at Work has more analysis.
Which, no doubt, is sure to prove especially attractive to the likes of elements weird and unwholesome such as:
the Religiopolitical Right and their friends in the Christian Homeschooling Movement, the latter's syllabus based on apartheid South Africa's National Christian Education such;
school districts seeking back-door ways to get rid of poor-performing teachers without "undue and unnecessary union interference" or "interference and harrassment from those meddling bloggers," and haste posthaste more than anything;
supporters of "school choice" based on tuition vouchers for blackmailing "chronic and habitual" welfare cases seen (as per conservative stereotypes) to be "lacking healthy and proper moral compass" because of "welfare dependency***promoting Socialist, Communist or otherwise un-American beliefs;"
other religiopolitical conservatives seeking to use court action to challenge the legality as much as constitutionality of free public education based on rather frivolous arguments as would prompt the courts to dismiss their suits outright (e.g., "unconstitutional promotion of Secular-Humanism" in the school curriculum); and
such seeking "complete and final" devolution of educational policy to local school districts "based on local customs and experience," the whole financed through "block grants" for which transparency is to be strongly discouraged.
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STAYING WITH THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT FOR A MOMENT, they're no doubt drooling(!!!) in sick and depraved envy @ the results of a study which suggests that 25% of high-school girls have been diagnosed with some class of a Loathsome Social Disease.
The which, inevitably, will be excused on the "unwitting promotion of sexual promiscuity" in the public-school syllabus, howbeit, as per usual with that ilk, lacking any credible substantiation to prove the interconnexion.
Which, ironically, is the same sort of crowd who sees homeschooling as the "last and only hope" to "save our children from themselves," unaware of such being all too likely avenue for incestuous LeTourneauism as an agency of coercion and control--let alone finding excuses to avoid attracting "unwelcome attention" and suspicions of child sexual abuse.
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L'AFFAIRE ELLIOT SPITZER MAY HAVE SEEN CLOSURE, IN A WAY, WITH HIS RESIGNATION JUST THIS MORNING to avoid further scandal after new developments emerged of his regularly patronising women of loose morals to the tune of $80,000 over recent months.
But then again, a writer for Harper's recently told RawStory.com that l'affaire Spitzer may really be a cheap back-door political stunt by the GOP, in particular using the Mann Act (proscribing interstate transport of women for Immoral Purposes) as a ruse for More Serious Charges.
Not to mention there being the potential for a number of prominent Religiopolitical Right figures being caught in flagrante delicto @ the GOP Convention in the Twin Cities this fall--which the GOP will surely claim is nothing less than "Democrat payback," among other bromides.
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IT'S NO WONDER CHINA SEEMS TO BECOME ALL THE MORE PARANOID AS THE BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES APPROACH, and especially so after Human Rights Watch came out with a blistering report citing abuses in the treatment of migrant "guest workers" China brought in to assist with construction of Olympics venues, among them holding back pay for as much as a year and lack of access to proper health and social welfare services.
Seconded by a number of prominent Hollywood figures and other entertainers, taking issue with China's interference with Tibetans' right to self-determination and unhealthy air pollution levels in Beijing during the Olympic Games.
The which are dismissed by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jichei as "anti-China forces" seen to be "tarnishing the image of China," only to wind up tarnishing their own.
So much for the Fox News crowd challenging those who criticise the conservative agenda as "anti-America forces," or terms to that effect....
IN A PREVIOUS EDITION OF THESE ESSAYS, READERS, YOUR CORRESPONDENT ENQUIRED INTO the likelihood of "tax reasons" being used as an excuse by "work-from-home" scheme operators to justify their operations in the first place.
This time, Your Correspondent has to wonder if the same pathetic bromide of "tax reasons" (as in maximising tax credits to create the aura of profitability for a business type unlikely to generate realistic profit) is being used by "credit service companies" operating on a "purely-for-profit" basis (as opposed to quasi-charitable entities such as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, which offers their services free or @ nominal cost as a public service).
In particular, the kind of "credit services" which advise the use of illegal or questionable strategems such as:
"file segregation" (creating a "new, clean and legal" identity for credit purposes);
constant and potentially frivolous harrassment of credit bureaux in challenging the accuracy and timeliness of virtually every item in one's credit files with the intent of their removal;
offering "informational reports" of dubious or questionable credibility about where one could obtain low-rate unsecured VISA and/or MasterCards "guaranteed," in spite of past credit problems or no established credit history; and
"piggybacking" one's bad credit file onto the "clean" credit of one with good credit.
Who, all too often, require fees in advance, itself illegal for the most part.
And, in any case, play upon especially such caught up in the "sub-prime" or "Alt-A" mortgage loan meltdown and its knock-on effects, particularly among those who need consumer credit badly, but know not where to turn locally or otherwise lack knowledge of their rights under consumer-credit and consumer-protection laws.
Especially so the socioeconomically vulnerable that His Fraudulency's Great Within and their propaganda droogs @ Fox Noise are forever claiming "deserve" such vulnerability for "lacking proper moral compass" as expects the free-market capitalist system to be looked upon as Great White Father, so to speak.
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IN ANY CASE, USING "TAX BENEFITS" TO JUSTIFY THE PROMOTION OF ILLEGAL OR QUESTIONABLE TACTICS to rebuild or otherwise establish decent consumer credit isn't outside the bounds of possibility for Your Correspondent. (Reader, I wonder if you would likely agree.)
Especially considering where the several tactics recommended by "purely-for-profit" credit service companies carry fatal flaws by virtue of the law:
"File segregation" schemes won't wash with the courts; petitions seeking change of name by court order require those so seeking to swear that such a change is not being done with intent to avoid claimed debts. Not to mention having to publish Disclaimer of Debts Notices giving a false name and address (the latter really no better than a mail drop) @ your own expense.
Requests to challenge the accuracy and timeliness of credit-file information through the credit bureaux can be declined if the bureau has reason to believe that such claims are "frivolous, vexatious or otherwise fraudulent."
The idea that those with problem credit can get low-rate unsecured credit cards flies in the face of accepted banking-industry practice of using credit-bureaux information (including such dealing with one's employment, income and payment histories), among other factors, to determine approval and the exact amount of credit line available. As well, the idea that approval of applications is somehow "guaranteed" flies in the face of established industry practice.
As for these "informational reports," onus is left to the would-be applicant to apply (and, for that matter, request applications from banks listed), which may belie the fact that credit applications can be rejected for "excessive credit bureaux enquiries"--which the "publisher" may or may not accept as grounds for refund under any "guarantees" advertised. (Remember, "a guarantee is only as good as the company behind it.")
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WHICH LEAVES OPEN PLENTY OF INCENTIVES AND OPPORTUNITIES DEVIOUS AND QUESTIONABLE for these "purely-for-profit" credit companies to use the "tax reasons" device as an explanation for their staying in business, especially if they have to keep moving from town to town to avoid John Law's wrath.
Said "tax reasons" involving tax credits and deductions available to businesses, perhaps magnified all the more by a desire to maintain an aura of viability for a devious sector unlikely to maintain any semblance thereof. That, and a desire to target vulnerable persons in need of credit, but unlikely to find credible "hometown" resources.
Even more so considering where many of these "credit services" companies operate from mail drops more than likely, excused all along as necessary "for privacy reasons."
Go figure....
Don't expect this to be the next Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood
WHEN IT COMES TO THEMED RESTAURANTS AS ARE PARTICULARLY POPULAR IN THE MAJOR CITIES OF THE WORLD,Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood set the standards for the general concept.
In turn inspiring wannabes with varying degrees of success such as Rainforest Cafe (I was @ its "mother" location in the Mall of America this past fall), Harley-Davidson Cafe, NASCAR Cafe and Fashion Cafe.
Now, judging by the following "WaiWai" item from the Mainichi Daily News out of Tokyo (the credibility of which cannot be verified, for the most part), it appears likely we may see another Hard Rock Cafe in the making--or maybe not:
Akihabara, the Tokyo district known as a haven for otaku of all stripes, has now got a new bandwagon. Or, to be more precise, a train, according to Sunday Mainichi (3/9).
Little TGV is a newly opened restaurant in Akihabara that catering to trainspotters' every delight.
Customers enter the establishment by paying ¥500 for an old-style train ticket, which a waitress--wearing a uniform modeled on those actually worn by railroad company employees--uses a hole punch to permit entry, just as station attendants once did at ticket gates across Japan.
Items on the cheaply priced menus also have a distinct train theme, like Loop Line Fried Onion Rings and Yamanote Line cocktails, named after the arterial routes that run through Osaka and Tokyo.
Little TGV is also filled with railroad paraphernalia, with station and track signs hanging on the walls, one area decorated by the gauge from an actual locomotive, massive screens showing footage of renowned train trips from around the world and background music replaced by recordings of rail trips and the clatter of engines traveling along tracks.
But what's making people sit up and take notice of the restaurant is its location in the heart of the otaku capital of the world. And though superficially they share much in common, Japan's otaku geeks and trainspotters, who call themselves "tetsu"--an abbreviation for tetsudo mania (literally, "train freaks")--have traditionally considered each other to be world's apart.
Harutomo Sataka, the man behind the concept of Little TGV has been pleasantly surprised by the initial response to the establishment some may say is in "enemy territory."
"I never dreamed people would be so into this place," he tells Sunday Mainichi. "I totally understand why people who like trains feel a little uneasy about coming into Akihabara. But we don't want the restaurant to be a place just for trainspotters. We also want to create a talking point for otaku and ordinary salarymen, too. That's why we deliberately set up a place so openly dedicated to trainspotters right in the middle of Akihabara."
Yuko Kimura, a self-confessed "tetsu" and the pin-up girl for trainspotters across Japan, is a huge supporter of the Little TGV concept, working there as a "special conductor" (the restaurant's name for waitresses) once a month.
She tells Sunday Mainichi: "I'd really like to see this area become a gathering place for railroad freaks to get together and use as a base."
No doubt about it: If Little TGV winds up becoming the next Hard Rock Cafe/Planet Hollywood/Rainforest Cafe, expect approriate adaptations of the theme wherever they operate, such as:
Chicago: Memorabilia of the glory days of American passenger rail, in particular such trains as originated out of the Windy City's six terminals like the 20th Century Limited and Broadway Limited for New York; the Super Chief for Los Angeles; the California Zephyr for Denver and San Francisco and the cutthroat competition between the 400, Hiawathas and Twin Zephyrs for the Twin Cities.
Mall of America: James J. Hill, "the Empire Builder" "himself," and his creation known as the Great Northern Railway--what could be more apropos the location?
Toronto (or maybe Niagara Falls): The Great Canadian Rail Journey, as in the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific (and, for good measure, Newfoundland's legendary 3' 6" narrow-gauge line and its claim to fame, "the Newfie Bullet" between St. John's and Port-aux-Basques).
London: Celebrating the various eras of British rail services, from the private companies (and the amalagamation into The Big Four) to nationalisation and denationalisation, with plenty of attention on such legends as the Brighton Belle and the Flying Scotsman.
Cape Town:Die Bloutrein, perhaps the last of the great luxury rail journeys, and then some (Cape Town-Kimberly-Johannesburg-Pretoria).
Sydney: Australia's rather interesting rail situation, what with Victoria having 5' 3" as their standard gauge; Queensland and Tasmania, 3' 6" gauge; New South Wales (and its core transcontinental lines Sydney/Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth and Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin), 4' 8½" standard; and such interesting trains as the Melbourne-Albury-Sydney Spirit of Progress (change of trains in Albury and all), the Brisbane-Rockhampton-Townsville-Cairns Sunlander, and Australia's flagship train experience, the Sydney-Adelaide-Perth Indian Pacific.
