Goldman Sachs’s Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy.

“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all,” Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said yesterday at a panel discussion at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The panel’s discussion topic was, “What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”

Goldman Sachs, robber barons deluxe, showed up at a panel discussion on morality? Too funny. What would be even funnier would be if they actually believe that paying record salaries and bonuses to themselves is somehow going to “boost the economy”.

Funny, that is, if it wasn’t tragically and fatalistically sad. Oink oink to the next great depression.

U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

“Anything that is out in the open is fair game for collection,” says Steven Aftergood, who tracks intelligence issues at the Federation of American Scientists. But “even if information is openly gathered by intelligence agencies it would still be problematic if it were used for unauthorized domestic investigations or operations. Intelligence agencies or employees might be tempted to use the tools at their disposal to compile information on political figures, critics, journalists or others, and to exploit such information for political advantage. That is not permissible even if all of the information in question is technically ‘open source.’”

Tweeting to the CIA…nice.

Pennsylvania state lawmaker: Veterans who support climate change legislation are ‘traitors.’

Daryl Metcalfe A coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, under the name Operation Free, is on a 21-state bus tour to alert the public about the dangers of global warming and its threat to national security. Upon hearing about the group’s visit to Pennsylvania, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) blasted the veterans as “traitors” and compared them to Benedict Arnold:

Global warming is inextricably linked to national security, with the potential to “aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions” around the world, which “could increase the pool of potential recruits into terrorist activity.” In the past, Metcalfe has refused to support Domestic Violence Awareness month in Pennsylvania because the resolution referenced domestic abuse suffered by men, which Metcalfe interpreted as part of a “homosexual agenda.” He also opposed a vote to “honor the 60th anniversary of a Muslim group in the state, because ‘Muslims don’t recognize Jesus Christ as God.’”

Speaking out about global warming=terrorist. Invading sovereign nations for optional wars=patriotism.

Why do we keep electing utter morons and nutjobs to represent us?

South Carolina Republicans apologize for op-ed comparing DeMint to penny-pinching Jews.


Yesterday, two South Carolina Republican Party county chairmen came under fire for using an ethnic stereotype about Jews in their op-ed defending Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). They noted a “saying” that “Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves” — which is what DeMint is doing by “watching our nation’s pennies.” The Republican Jewish Coalition has demanded an apology:

Both the chairmen have now apologized. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) also denounced the remarks — which were meant to praise him — saying the comments were “thoughtless and hurtful.”

Anyone who finds blatant racism on the part of any level of the GOP difficult to comprehend… well, you just haven’t been paying attention, have you?

Report: Unprecedented Number Of Death Threats Against Obama — And Secret Service Overwhelmed

The Boston Globe reports that a new internal Congressional Research Service report and government sources say there are an unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama — and that the Secret Service is insufficiently funded and staffed to deal with them.

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report back in August that found that the number of white supremacist militia groups has spiked by 35% since 2000. The Secret Service has, in turn, increased its employees from 6,700 two years ago to a projected 7,055 in the coming fiscal year, almost entirely devoted to protecting national leaders. But that’s a staff increase of just 5.3 percent — nowhere near the 400 percent increase in threats to the president’s life.

I would bet that more people objected to, and loathed George Bush than Obama…and we didn’t hear anything about the Secret Service being overworked then…wonder what’s the difference?

Oh yeah. We as a nation have a bad tendency to demonize brown people, be them here or in the Middle East. Apparently that tradition extends to threatening the president.

Sportsmen’s and gun groups up in arms over passage of AB 962

Sportsmen’s and pro-gun groups are up in arms over a recent bill signed by Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that puts restrictions on the purchase of certain ammunition beginning Feb. 1, 2011.

“Gov. Schwarzenegger has just created an underground black market for ammunition,” Halcon added.

Gates: Disputed US airfield should stay on Okinawa

TOKYO – U.S. leaders expect Japan’s new government to stick with already-forged agreements between the two nations, America’s top defense official said Tuesday amid debate over whether to shutter a U.S. military air field on Okinawa.

But some members of Hatoyama’s government want all remaining U.S. troops moved out of Japan altogether. Okinawa residents have complained that the military bases cause too much noise and crime.

Let Chalmers Johnson explain Okinawa to ya.

Howard Barton Unruh Dead: “Walk Of Death” Mass Murderer Who Killed 13 In 1949 Dies At 88

TRENTON, N.J. — Howard Barton Unruh, who killed 13 people as he walked the streets of Camden in a psychotic 1949 shooting spree that was the nation’s worst mass murder at the time, died Monday. He was 88.

Unruh had been confined in a state psychiatric hospital since the killings, which became known as the “Walk of Death.” Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, he confessed to the killings and was judged mentally competent but never tried for the Sept. 6, 1949, massacre.

US diocese files for bankruptcy

A Catholic diocese based in the state of Delaware has filed for US bankruptcy protection on the eve of a civil trial involving high-profile sex abuse.

The case, due to be heard on Monday, would have been the first to go to trial under a state law creating a two-year window allowing claims to be brought even if the statute of limitations had expired.

I fear that things are hopeless. I see no end in sight to churches publicly honoring veterans, praising the troops for defending our freedoms, turning national holidays into military recognition days, having special military appreciation days, encouraging or not discouraging their young men (and sometimes women) to join the military, helping young men to become military chaplains, ostracizing those who disparage the military, equating admiration for the military with patriotism and criticism of the military with treason, imploring church members to pray for the troops, regarding the military’s acts of aggression as benevolent, presuming divine support for U.S. military interventions, accepting the militarism of society, having a superstitious reverence for the military, and remaining in willful ignorance of U.S. foreign policy and its use of the military as a force for evil in the world.

Christian, it is time to slay the golden calf.