Is there anyone out there who still expects anything from the Angelides Commission? After AIG? After TARP? After Treasury’s gargantuan tax breaks for banks, Geithner’s preposterous asset buying program, the Citigroup $300 billion plus “ring fence,” or the FDIC’s guarantees of bank debts? Or, for that matter, the proposed new financial “reform” legislation that does little to rein in “too big to fail” banks and their long deadly chains of derivatives and credit default swaps? Probably not. But since the Commission is finally holding its first hearings this week, let’s just for a moment suspend disbelief and imagine how we skeptics might be proved wrong. One telltale sign will come right at the start: Are the bankers who are testifying required to do so under oath or not? If the answer is no, relax and go see a disaster movie. You can be sure that it will all be just for show. —“Ask Holder to Be Bolder: Resolving the Mysteries of AIG,” Tom Ferguson, New Deal 2.0
A Harper’s Magazine history of whitewash: John T. Flynn on the Pecora Commission and the Depression, circa 1934: “The Marines Land in Wall Street” (free PDF–and highly recommended);
Christopher Hitchens on closeted Republican conservatives, circa 1987: “It Dares not Speak Its Name: Fear and self-loathing on the gay right” (subs);
and free: Benjamin DeMott on terrorism and 9/11, circa 2004: Whitewash as public service: How the 9/11 Commission Report defrauds the nation”;
and the Harper’s Index searchable archive, for all statistics on “corruption”
Emet means truth. It is my ur-word. It is the essence of Hashem, the impetus of creation, the midwife of the Covenant. These are poor words, but they will do. I could go on for hours. Ruth has advised against that… Ruth had a job as a community worker. She arrived unbidden at the home of an at-risk youth to give his parents a list of behaviors to stop. They nearly pushed her down a flight of stairs. She was fired. She had a volunteer position at a daycare. A boy asked her what it was like to not have a thingie. She answered, in great detail. Some policemen were called, most certainly an overreaction, but Ruth raised her voice and informed them that law is a deterrent to crime, not to gender. She is no longer welcome at the daycare. —“Marked Man,” The Golem Blog, The Morning News
What legitimate army doesn’t have robot warriors (forty countries do);
what you’re really looking for are armed dolphins trained to kill;
in comparison, the suitcase bomb seems tawdry
When executives at Unilever noticed that much of their office space was either unused or unoccupied as workers traveled, they took away 36 percent of their employees’ personal space. The company’s offices in Leatherhead, England, now feature “agile” space: a largely open office where workers rearrange themselves throughout the day depending upon their tasks. They can collaborate with one another while sitting at a table, take a break in a curvy “vitality” space or concentrate alone in a small individual work area. The company’s design for its corporate offices in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., resembles a large house more than a cube farm. Renovations in Bogota and Singapore are scheduled to be finished in 2010. —“On the death of the Cubicle,” Susan E. Reed, Global Post
Who cares about Jay Leno in exile?;
perhaps the same folks who concern themselves with the perfectly executed media confession?;
or about what anonymous Facebook employees have to say?
