FOR SOME REASON OR ANOTHER, THERE'S BEEN DELAYS IN THE DISPLAY OF POSTINGS TO BLOGDRIVE BLOGS, THE EXAGGERATOR INCLUDED, through much of today.

Hence, readers, if you can see this posting, please e-mail me and let me know how you are and how you are doing. I just want to know if you're reading this.

As well, perhaps some answers need to be coming from Blogdrive as explains the delay in posting to member blogs without the common courtesy of giving prior timely notice on their website or the update blog.

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"THE TRUTH?! YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!"

Thus observed Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men challenging the credibility of what a Marine court-martial would allow in evidence for one of their own charged with infamous murder.

And such seems to be the equally-cavalier mindset certain specimens of conservative Zealotry and True Belief (Good Christians All, remember?) have in suggesting that the Great Unwashed, especially so Archie Bunker/Alf Garnett types, cannot be entrusted with the Truth "lest such result in Error," as if suggesting that Error was really some class of a Loathsome Mental Disorder somehow related to the dreaded "schizophrenic germs," which were to be seen in the same league as the common cold, influenza, typhoid fever and Other Loathsome and Contagious Diseases.

(As a matter of fact, it's my understanding that there is no clear medical consensus on what exactly causes schizophrenia and related disorders of the mind; however, they are unanimous on the point that "schizophrenic germs" do not exist except as a scare tactic.)

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AND, COME TO THINK OF IT, THERE ARE SOME WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TYPES WHO WOULD JUST LOVE TO USE THE PREVAILING STATE OF ELECTORAL UNCERTAINTY to unleash some class of North Korean-stylee "Loyalty Drill" as an insturment of fear and paranoia in the name and authority of the State--especially when targeting, and deliberately so, lower-income, economically-deprived and/or National Minority neighbourhoods, such usually being seen as "potential hotbeds of seditious tendencies" along Secular-Progressive lines.

Especially so in the wake of the Federal Reserve Board's offer of an $85 billion emergency buydown of failing insurer AIG, which those among the "Loyalty Drill" crowd would like to use as a starting point of paranoia about the likelihood of an Obama/Biden win come November being but the first step towards Creeping Communism and its "conspiring" to Undermine Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations by Divine Ordinance.

Hence, so this line of attack for "Loyalty Drill" purposes would have it, a McCain/Palin vote is one for the defence of Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity, which is conditioned by, and conditional upon, free-market capitalism with American characteristics being the Great White Father as will empower the Lower Classes into a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life based on a "pure" capitalist model.

Same which sees Self-Regulatory Codes of Good Practice sponsored by industry and trade associations to be more than adequate regulation thanks to automatic and arbitrary "safe harbour" declarations showing no regard for possible harm to competition by tacitly endorsing cartel behaviour through ambiguously-phrased language ... not to mention forcing consumers experiencing problems with products or services to needlessly "jump through hoops" in what amounts to nothing less than a kangaroo-court scenario, with needlessly arbitrarily delays in processing responses notwithstanding provisions in said Self-Regulatory Codes calling for their handling within timely and reasonable limits.

Let alone the aura of "freedom of choice" being manipulated through price-fixing agreements, control of supply and territory, quotas, creating deliberate and artificial shortages as required through stockpiling in locked and sealed warehouses, Reseller Price Maintenance, even restrictions or blanket bans on brand advertising to control market share artifically and arbitrarily.

In other words, the point of this whispering campaign's meme:

A vote for McCain/Palin means the economy must get all the worse before it can get better--if @ all.

Be sure to spread the word--but spread it responsibly.

And something else to think about, in response to the possible anti-Semitic platitudes and bromides in response to the AIG bailout and likely other actions which could only stoke the "Creeping Communism!!!" meme, in an idiotic-sounding singsong:

"Money is the root of all evil."
Why not invest yours in United States Savings Bonds?

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SOMETHING WHICH MAY BE WORTH KEEPING EYES AND EARS ALL THE MORE OPEN TO IN THE COMING MONTHS, especially if the socioeconomic uncertainty poses all the more a clear and present danger to the point where jobs may be all the more difficult to find--especially among the so-called "fundamentals of the economy" otherwise known as the Joe Sixpack crowd, traditionally unlikely to have realistic job or career skills for the New Socioeconomic Model and Paradigm (let alone being cannon-fodder for crude and deliberate prolefeed in the Fox Prolefeed stylee).

As in an adjudication this week from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in England's Green and Pleasant Land involving a company needing what they claim are "home mailers:"

Ad
A magazine ad, for Direct Marketing UK, stated "HOME WORKERS URGENTLY REQUIRED No Experience Necessary Computer Not Required Direct marketing company requires self motivated home workers to do envelope work. Earn £1.60p per envelope  Example of Earnings  Do 50 envelopes get paid £80?  Do 100 envelopes get paid £160?  Do 250 envelopes get paid £400?  The more envelope work you do the more cash you earn  We Give You Full On Going [sic] Advice and Support  For your free information pack please call Liam on 0906 XXX XXXX  Or text info followed by your full name and address only to 07XXX XXXXXX  Or e-mail your name and address to info@XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.net  Or send a S.A.E. to direct marketing UK, PO Box 174, Merseyside L34 5WS ... Join or apply now at www.directmarketinguk.net". Small print at the bottom of the ad stated "All calls cost £1.50p per minute at all times from a BT land line one off joining fee applies".

The follow-up literature stated "Earn up to £500+ per week ... We pay an amazing £1.60 for each envelope that you mail!  You earn £5.00 commission on each order generated by your mailings! ... Does the idea of becoming an independent home mailer, mailing envelopes appeal to you? ... This is your chance to double or quadruple your current income in a matter of days ... By following our instructions contained within the home business mailwealth program, all of the envelopes will arrive pre-addressed or typed on ... That means you will NOT have to address any envelopes what so ever.  Just simply secure the envelopes as per our instructions and post them to us for payment ... As soon as we receive your shipment of envelopes, we will rush you, your paycheque!  ... We just need the help of honest hard working home mailers to place direct marketing information into envelopes for us on a continuous basis.  We can assure you that the more envelopes you mail into us as per our instructions, The more money you will make lets [sic] say for example you only mailed us 180 envelopes a week you would get paid £288 ... but if you mailed into us 350 envelopes You would get paid £560 per week direct to you ... Please note that this is not A GET-RICH SCHEME or a mere envelope filling exercise ... HOW TO GET STARTED IMMEDIATELY! Please complete your priority APPLICATION FORM enclosed and send it back to us within 7 working days. We will require a small one off fully refundable registration fee of only £49.99. This will help to cover the cost of the administrative cost involved in post and packaging your start-up-pack to you. And all the materials you will ever need to get started and to providing YOU with ongoing support and advice and setting up your file ...".

Issue
Two complainants, one of whom said he expected the work to involve envelope filling but found that it consisted of placing ads that asked consumers to send a S.A.E. for a free information pack on envelope work, thought the ad and follow-up literature:

1. did not make clear the nature of the work, and

2. did not make clear that the rate of £1.60 per envelope was reduced if responses returned were more than seven days old and that a minimum of 20 responses had to be returned to achieve any payment.

The ASA challenged whether:

3. the quoted earnings were realistic and whether the ad and follow-up literature misleadingly implied that earnings were dependent on the respondent's ability to work, and

4. the follow-up literature made clear the marketer's geographical address, since the ad did not.

Response
1. Direct Marketing UK (DM) pointed out that the follow-up literature, which respondents to the ad received, stated " ... Please note that this is not A GET-RICH SCHEME or a mere envelope filling exercise ...". They said the ad was designed to find people who were interested in their scheme but their main advertising message was contained in the follow-up literature. They said their main business was selling names and addresses to other companies for marketing purposes. They asserted that they did not operate a pyramid scheme.

2. The follow-up literature asked recipients for a £49.99 fee to receive a start-up pack. DM said the start-up pack made clear the restrictions on the payment rate of £1.60 per envelope.

3. DM said they paid scheme participants by postal order and had not kept any records of payment.

4. DM said their geographical address was in the start-up pack.

Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA noted the ad claimed "Direct marketing company requires self motivated home workers to do envelope work" and the follow-up literature stated " ... Does the idea of becoming an independent home mailer, mailing envelopes appeal to you? ... Just simply secure the envelopes as per our instructions and post them to us for payment ... As soon as we receive your shipment of envelopes, we will rush you your paycheque! ... We just need the help of honest hard working home mailers to place direct marketing information into envelopes for us on a continuous basis ..."; we considered both the ad and the follow-up literature suggested that DM were offering payment for stuffing envelopes.

We considered that consumers responding to the ad and follow-up literature would not expect to have to place ads themselves. However, one of the complainants sent us a copy of the start-up pack. It contained a Home Business Mailwealth Program Manual, which asked recipients to place ads in shop windows or newspapers stating, for example, Marketing company requires workers to earn extra cash doing home-based work, and asking consumers to send a stamped addressed envelope to the home workers address for free details. If the home worker received any replies, he or she was required to forward them to DM. We considered that consumers were paying £49.99 for the opportunity to receive compensation that was derived primarily from the introduction of other consumers into the scheme. We therefore considered that DM were operating a pyramid scheme.

We concluded that neither the ad nor the follow-up literature made clear the nature of the work and were therefore misleading.

On this point, the ad and follow-up literature breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 52.4b (Employment and business opportunities).

2. Upheld
We noted DM had previously been told by the CAP Copy Advice team that it was likely to be acceptable to quote "£1.60 per envelope"  providing that was the fee paid to everyone. We also noted the Copy Advice team were not aware of the true nature of the work involved when they gave their advice.  We noted the start-up pack stated " ... We will pay a reduced rate of £1.00 for each envelope that are [sic] Older than 7 days old from when we receive them ..." and " ... We will only be able to issue a cheque for a minimum of 20 envelopes.  You may make this total up in separate batches, to ensure that each envelope is less than 7 days old when we receive it ...". However, we noted the ad stated "Earn £1.60p per envelope" and the follow-up literature stated "We pay an amazing £1.60 for each envelope that you mail!"; we considered they both misleadingly suggested that £1.60 per envelope was the fee paid to everyone. We considered the restrictions on the payment rate were significant and ought to have been made clear to consumers in the ad or follow-up literature, before they had made a financial commitment to the scheme.

On this point, the ad and follow-up literature breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 52.4i (Employment and business opportunities).

3. Upheld
We noted the Copy Advice team had told DM that the claim "Do 250 envelopes and you will be paid £400+" should be removed if most people on the scheme did not achieve that level of payment. We noted the follow-up literature stated "Earn up to £500+ per week ..." and " ... if you mailed into us 350 envelopes You would get paid £560 per week ...". We noted DM had sent no evidence that the quoted earnings had ever been achieved. Given that rates were reduced for replies that were older than a week, the numbers of envelopes quoted in the ad would have to be less than a week old on receipt by DM to achieve the corresponding quoted payment rates; we considered that would be difficult to achieve. We considered DM had not proved that the quoted earnings were realistic.

We also noted the ad stated "The more envelope work you do the more cash you earn" and the follow-up literature stated " ... the more envelopes you mail into us ... The more money you will make ..." which we considered implied home workers could earn as much money as they wanted depending on their eagerness to work, whereas we understood that the amount earned depended on how many people replied to the notices placed. We concluded that the ad and follow-up literature were misleading.

On this point, the ad and follow-up literature breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 52.2 (Employment and business opportunities).

4. Upheld
We noted neither the ad nor the follow-up literature made clear DMs geographical address, despite the fact that the Copy Advice team had advised DM to include a full geographical address instead of a PO Box address in the follow-up literature. We also noted the geographical address was not in the start-up pack despite DMs assertion that it was.

On this point, the ad and follow-up literature breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 52.4a (Employment and business opportunities).

Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Important note: A new Code clause was introduced to reflect the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and applied to marketing communications that appeared after 24 June 2008. Although the ad appeared before that date, we noted the new Code clause stated "marketing communications should not offer schemes under which consumers pay or give consideration for the opportunity to receive compensation that is derived primarily from the introduction of other consumers into the scheme and not from the sale or consumption of products (pyramid schemes)". Because DM were operating a pyramid scheme, we told them not to advertise it at all.

And though the ad in question is from Great Britain, there are worthwhile lessons we "morally superior" Americans can learn, because "it's a small world, after all ..."

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QUOTH JOHN McCAIN: "THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR ECONOMY ARE THE WORKERS, AND THEY ARE STRONG."

Which sounds, methinks, like something out of Communist or even Fascist/Nazi propaganda, never mind their articles of faith holding nothing but contempt for the working classes while officially claiming to represent their best interests.

To the Communists, workers were expected to be in full control of the means of production and distribution, expected to accept the Marxist doctrine of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his need" as a Sanctii Sanctorum.

To the Fascists and Nazis, workers were seen to be but a larger part of a Greater Collective Whole known as Industry, and that they show due respect and obescience to their employers--a throwback to the Fascist movement's roots in corporatism, which expected employers to be all the more generous to their employees to the point of pacifying them against joining "subversive" labour unions.

(The which may want to be something Fox Prolefeed and their ilk may want to ponder, what with their reckless and utter contempt for liberals and Secular-Progressives expressed in their McCarthyistic dismissal therefor as "Communists" or "Nazis" absent proof or, @ mininum, a clear understanding of basic ideological differences. And do they choose to willfully ignore the warnings of History by way of the "Red Scare" which Sen. McCarthy wrought in the early 1950's, ruining as it did many thousands of innocent people to the point of suicides in some extreme cases?)

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IN ANY CASE, THE McCAIN/PALIN TICKET WANTS THE WORKING CLASSES TO SEE THEMSELVES AS PART OF A NOBLE AND PRIVILEGED CASTE based on free-market capitalism with American characteristics being their Great White Father; one as will empower them to a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life; one as will answer any and every need thanks to greater selection and lower prices.

Unfortunately, such is one with the Producerist agenda, which holds that this supposedly Arcadian ideal is under threat from two different and opposing fronts:

• One the one hand, by Wall Street, The City, the Bahnhofstrasse, and the "International Jewish Conspiracies" controlling all "to the greater detrius of Christendom;" and,
• On the other hand, by unchecked and uncontrolled immigration (especially among those deemed to be "inferior peoples or races" or otherwise practicing religions not in communion with a "pure" form of Christian teaching--especially so such based on Fundamentalist and Primitive theologies), "chronic and habitual welfare dependency" (especially so among "inferior peoples") and a "morally bankrupt" system of State Social Security and welfare placing too great an emphasis on dependency over industry.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Producerist movement has such strange bedfellows as "the Four Hundred," neo-Nazis, White Christian Supremacists and the Archie Bunker/Alf Garnett element as common supporters and sympathisers?

And is it any wonder where, in the face of a clear and emerging state of socioeconomic deterioration and hardship, the McCain/Palin camp is expecting the workers to hold dear their privileged role and place within the traditional free-market capitalistic model and paradigm while jobs are becoming harder, if not difficult, to come by, incomes are shrinking and the rich-poor gap is widening all the more to the point of risking major social upheval?

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COME TO THINK OF IT, WE MAY WANT TO KEEP OUR EYES OPEN IN THE E-MAIL FOR A MAJOR RETURN OF THE "JONATHON ROURKE/JODY JACOBS" "FIVE REPORTS" CHAIN LETTER as made the rounds wholesale in the face of major uncertainty over the outcome of the 2000 Presidential elections, as witness the following paragraph early on:

I'll make you a promise. READ THIS E-MAIL THOROUGHLY TO THE VERY END--Follow precisely what it says to the letter--and you will not have to worry about who is President, whether or not there is a recession, or whether you will keep your current job....

Especially so the sort targeting especially lower-income or otherwise socioeconomically-vulnerable neighbourhoods where jobs are likely to be limited or unavailable, particularly so to the detrius of such with few or no realistically marketable job skills in the current socioeconomic state.

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SPOT WHAT'S WRONG HERE: Crude oil prices approaching $90/bbl on the NYMEX ... Gulf Coast offshore fields out of production since Hurricane Gustav's arrival, and remaining so in Ike's wake; likewise with refineries in the same general area ... gas prices across the country seeing wholesale and unexpected spikes in pricing, in some cases approaching $5/gallon, and with shortages of supply in some areas for the immediate and foreseeable future ... and militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta oilfields region launching attacks seeking greater autonomy and wealth-sharing, and resorting (or so rumoured) to sabotage on pipelines to make their feelings known.

Not to mention an unpredictably uncertain Presidential election here in a presumably "morally superior" United States which is prone to be exploited all the more by weird and unwholesome elements as could manipulate things all the more.

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AND YOU HAVE TO WONDER IF FEMA'S RELIEF-DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE IKE IN AND AROUND HOUSTON, TX is designed primarily for the sake of pacifying victims enough into voting Straight Republican come November, reinforced by fear and paranoia about an Obama/Biden victory meaning nothing less than Creeping Socialism on a par with Certain Contagious, Loathsome and Notorious Diseases and Illnesses.

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AND SPEAKING OF THE RACIST IMPRECATIONS RAISED BY THE MARKETING OF "OBAMA WAFFLES," OFFICIALLY EXCUSED BY ITS CREATORS AS "POLITICAL SATIRE," @ $10 a box, perhaps it was time to bring up an interesting little history lesson involving a highly-respected brand of pancake mix whose name carries the unfortunate taint of Jim Crow-era racial sensibilities and stereotypes playing off the former.

Let's let the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia @ Ferris State University explain how Aunt Jemima pancake mix played up the racist "mammy" stereotype for marketing purposes:

Mammy's most successful commercial expression was (and is) Aunt Jemima. In 1889, Charles Rutt, a Missouri newspaper editor, and Charles G. Underwood, a mill owner, developed the idea of a self-rising flour that only needed water. He called it Aunt Jemima's recipe. Rutt borrowed the Aunt Jemima name from a popular vaudeville song that he had heard performed by a team of minstrel performers. The minstrels included a skit with a southern mammy. Rutt decided to use the name and the image of the mammy-like Aunt Jemima to promote his new pancake mix. Unfortunately for him, he and his partner lacked the necessary capital to effectively promote and market the product. They sold the pancake recipe and the accompanying Aunt Jemima marketing idea to the R.T. Davis Mill Company.

The R.T. Davis company improved the pancake formula, and, more importantly, they developed an advertising plan to use a real person to portray Aunt Jemima. The woman they found to serve as the live model was Nancy Green, who was born a slave in Kentucky in 1834. She impersonated Aunt Jemima until her death in 1923. Struggling with profits, R.T. Davis Company made the bold decision to risk their entire fortune and future on a promotional exhibition at the 1893 World's Exposition in Chicago. The Company constructed the world's largest flour barrel, 24 feet high and 12 feet across. Standing near the basket, Nancy Green, dressed as Aunt Jemima, sang songs, cooked pancakes, and told stories about the Old South--stories which presented the South as a happy place for blacks and whites, alike. She was a huge success. She had served tens of thousands of pancakes by the time the fair ended. Her success established her as a national celebrity. Her image was plastered on billboards nationwide, with the caption, "I'se in town, honey." Green, in her role as Aunt Jemima, made appearances at countless country fairs, flea markets, food shows, and local grocery stores. By the turn of the century, Aunt Jemima, along with the Armour meat chef, were the two commercial symbols most trusted by American housewives. By 1910 more than 120 million Aunt Jemima breakfasts were being served annually. The popularity of Aunt Jemima inspired many giveaway and mail-in premiums, including, dolls, breakfast club pins, dishware, and recipe booklets.

The R.T. Davis Mill Company was renamed the Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1914, and eventually sold to the Quaker Oats Company in 1926. In 1933 Anna Robinson, who weighed 350 pounds, became the second Aunt Jemima. She was much heavier and darker in complexion than was Nancy Green. The third Aunt Jemima was Edith Wilson, who is known primarily for playing the role of Aunt Jemima on radio and television shows between 1948 and 1966. By the 1960s the Quaker Oats Company was the market leader in the frozen food business, and Aunt Jemima was an American icon. In recent years, Aunt Jemima has been given a makeover: her skin is lighter and the handkerchief has been removed from her head. She now has the appearance of an attractive maid--not a Jim Crow era mammy.

(Come to think of it, the current Aunt Jemima looks somewhat like a cross between Diana Ross and Oprah Winfrey, no?) 

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COMMERCIAL WHICH DESERVES TO BE AIRED ALL THE MORE, QUESTIONING THE MORALS, DECENCY AND COMMON SENSE OF THE GOP GENERALLY, and their invocation of "traditional values" while exhibiting hypocrisy in the most flippant stylee (hat tip to Brave New Films):

(Come to think of it: Please share this video with your right-thinking friends who may still be tempted to vote Straight Republican in the belief that they are acting for G-d, Country and Family.)

And remember to pass along this meme:

A vote for McCain/Palin in November means that the economy must get worse before it gets better--if @ all.

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THE ONE OVERRIDING NEWS ITEM ON THE WORLD'S COLLECTIVE MIND TODAY WOULD HAVE TO BE THE SHOCK COLLAPSE OF THE LEHMAN BROTHERS INVESTMENT HOUSE following the collapse of emergency talks to try and save the same in the belief that they were somehow "essential" or otherwise "in the national interest."

Not to mention the news that another established investment house, Merrill Lynch, was being sold to Bank of America ... and the world's largest all-lines insurer, AIG, was seeking emergency assistance from the Federal Reserve.

Which, all in all, has the equities markets tanking full-on the world over, with major indices in unanimous freefall without exception. (The Tokyo and Hong Kong bourses were closed for local holidays.) And as if that weren't enow, crude oil is selling for below $100/bbl. for the first time since the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism was declared based on flawed arguments, thanks to the Lehman Brothers collapse and reports that damage to refining and offshore production capacity from Hurricane Ike was significantly less than feared. (Remember, most of the production along the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas and Louisana was already offline because of Hurricane Gustav.)

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THE BLAME FOR LEHMAN'S COLLAPSE AND MERRILL'S SALE CAN BE PUT DOWN, IN LARGE MEASURE, TO THE "SUB-PRIME" AND "ALT-A" MORTGAGE MARKETS, backed as they were with high-risk debt equities "suitable for widows and orphans" in the name of His Fraudulency's Classless Ownership Society ... in particular, the desire to put more among the "chronic and habitual" specimens of welfare dependency with marginal or non-existant credit records into the "healthy" and "empowering" benefits of owner-occupancy housing through trick, deceit or other crude appeals to their primitive patriot love.

Especially where such lenders as were specialist in bad-credit mortgage lending may have tacitly encouraged their poor-risk borrowers to give false or misleading statements on their loan applications because "we really don't have time or staff to check this information out" and, what's more, they were working on quotas.

All expected, no doubt, to reinforce the Neocon/Fascist article of faith in free-market capitalism with American characteristics being the Great White Father as will lead and empower the "welfare-dependent" Lower Classes into a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life--to be dominated in perpetuity by the White Male Low Church Christian Power Structure, thus entitled "by unwritten habit, custom and tradition." (The Low Church model no doubt preferred for its regarding ignorance and stupidity as bliss and heaven serving G-d and Christ.)

Which, in turn, must be stoking the fires of the crudest in anti-Semitic Zealotry and True Belief among the "patriotic" bigots and hatemongers all across the Information Stuporbahn, replete with all manner of crass suggestions that the International Zionist Conspiracy must be laughing in glee @ Lehman's collapse.

Which could be worth watching by the likes of the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre's Intelligence Project, among such specialist in keeping que vive on hate, bigotry, xenophobia and intolerance.

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ONE THING HOLDERS OF INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS WITH LEHMAN BROTHERS MAY WANT TO KNOW IS THAT THEIR ACCOUNTS ARE INSURED by a Federal agency known as the Securities Investors Protection Corporation (SIPC), which insures brokerage accounts to a value of $500,000 in toto, of which a maximum of $100,000 can be in cash or cash equivalents.

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AND ALONG WITH THE APPEALS TO CRUDE AND LATENT ANTI-SEMITIC FEELINGS AND TENDENCIES LIKELY TO ENSUE WITH THE NEWS OF LEHMAN'S COLLAPSE, there will likely be calls for establishing some class of a "Christian Banking" model as would provide banking products and services "based on Christian principles."

Beg pardon, but you might want to get in touch with Peabody and Sherman and have them set their Patent Wayback Machine for Ruthwell, Scotland, 1810, and looking up the Rev. Henry Duncan, pastor of the local Presbyterian church, who established a savings bank for the benefit of his poorer parishoners to save against hardship and adversity, investing their deposits in high-quality securities managed by a Board of Trustees acting for and on behalf of the depositor/owners, with any profits ensuing on these investments returned to depositors as a dividend.

Which would be enough to inspire the establishment of 465 trustee savings banks across Great Britain (182 in Scotland alone) by 1818, by which time the concept would arrive in the United States with the 1816 establishment of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS), the first such in the United States, by a group of civic-minded industrialists led by a philanthropist named Condy Raquet. And within due time, yet well before the Civil War, Quakers and Catholics would set up savings banks across the Northeast in the interest of promoting thrift and self-reliance among the working classes. All operating along the Ruthwell model.

(Ruthwell, in case you're wondering, is in Dumfries and Galloway, close to the Solwent Firth about halfway between Gretna Green and Dumfries as the crow flies.)

As if that weren't enough, another run with the Wayback Machine would want to be taken to Lévis, Québec (Canada), 1900, and some quality time with one Alphonse Desjardins, developing his concept of the caisse populaire on which the North American credit union model would be based; especially worth researching would be his idea of promoting caisses @ local parish level for the benefit of their parishoners as a means of promoting thrift and economic empowerment thereby, particularly so in rural areas as were being hit hard by high birth rates and depopulation caused by many having to move to Montréal or even Boston just to find work @ risk of horrible living conditions, high rents, unstable job makets and wages, and a lack of a stable values system.

Do I have a satisfactory model of "Christian Banking" for those of you so advocating, or is that not good enough because of "incompatibility with American experience and models" expecting only an "elect***entitled as of right" to have monopoly on profits while the rank-and-file are expected to make do?

And how is such to be regarded as "Christian," come to think of it?

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TALK ABOUT DIARRHEA OF THE MOUTH, INDECISION 2008 MODEL AND STYLEE: Machiavelli on steroids and amphetamines was overheard not only taking issue with the ads of both McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden, but also fact-checking organisations like FactCheck.org and Politifact.com, contending that "they've got their own biases built in there" and, hence, should not be trusted.

If this be so, then who should the Right-Thinking American Public trust, Fox Prolefeed?

The Saturday Evening Post?

Capper's Weekly?

Grit?

The American Magazine?

Confidential ("Tells the Facts and Names the Names")?

The National Enquirer and suchlike in the vein of scabloids?

Capt. Billy's Whiz-Bang?

(Which reminds Your Correspondent of a T-shirt slogan from around the 1979-80 period: "God Created Grass ... Man Created Booze ... Who Can You Trust?")       

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READERS, YOU WILL KINDLY MAKE NOTE OF THE ONLINE SHOPPING SECTION OF THIS WEBLOG: Your Correspondent has decided to further tweak it around so as to feature only such as have generated good click-through rates, as well as my new e-boutique and Amazon.com and kin.

Hopefully, such will translate into faster download time, and will give you a better selection of what you really want all along.

Now, if only some of you as visit this blog regularly would maximise its potential by making a regular habit of getting your shopping done here for once, especially with the end-of-year holiday shopping season imminent before too long....

KUDOS AND HAT TIP TO BRAVE NEW FILMS FOR BRINGING TO MY ATTENTION THIS ITEM FROM BILL MOYERS' JOURNAL ON PBS LAST FRIDAY as discussed how the power and intrusion of conservative talkback radio programmes may be open to abuse and incitement to Extreme Ultraviolence among certain easiy-influenced listeners, as may have been the case with the Knoxville Massacree back in July (and note where, because of technical constraints on YouTube's part, the item is presented in two parts):

The which should serve as a wake-up call and a warning to the dangers of how "words have consequences," or so the proverb hath it.

And may want to be enough to call for a general "tune-out" of such hatemongering propagandists, especially such using "entertainment" as a defence to such clear and present danger. That, and my previous suggestion for an effective form of "pre-emptive" interception before the speech can get nasty and ugly.

Come to think of it, something which they could use--as in the meme of the hour:

A vote for McCain/Palin come November means that the economy must get worse before it gets better ... if @ all.

(But do so politely ... and responsibly.)