Author: Payam

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Whale explodes in Taiwanese city

January 29 was the anniversary of this very bizarre event. The rotting flesh of a dead sperm whale generated so much gas that the beast exploded on the streets of Taiwan while the carcass was being transported to an academic laboratory for the purposes of scientific inquiry.

Yes, as they say always, truth is far stranger than fiction. The Taiwanese who were covered with whale blood, meat and blubber after the explosion will testify to the truthfulness (and even “truthiness”) of the adage.

A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer

The most distasteful thing about the spending habits of the most affluent in our country (enumerated in the article above) is the inordinate amount of preaching that emanates from that class. Preaching with regards to morality, morality in politics, morality in business, morality in life in general. The Bible is always prominent in these sermons, as is the character of one Jesus Christ, but the notions of charity that are codified in the writings that are attributed to Jesus are always conspicuously absent from these sermons. It’s almost as if He was another self-made man–the self-made carpenter–whose demise was doubly aggravated by Rome’s undue taxation and ultimate destruction of His woodworking business.

The Resurrection refers to Jesus’ physical return from the dead. His spiritual revival is, apparently, something for which we have to wait. It is awfully disheartening to know that so many are waiting for Armageddon to behave “morally”, most prominently the wealthy. It must be the case that the wealth will sway God on the Day of Judgment, or that God does not exist, and all the preaching is just a ploy to control the masses for the sole purpose of accumulating wealth.

Yes, sinners are those who cannot live within the confines of a $12000 annual income, and saints are those who cannot live within the confines of 39% income tax and estate taxes imposed on sums of millions of dollars.

The morality play is, apparently, a farce.

Telegraph | News | US is only country to oppose UN arms trade treaty

The British profited from the slave trade for decades after they had outlawed the notion in England. This hypocrisy, however, was committed nearly two centuries ago. As this news story nicely demonstrates, the former imperial powers have grown rich enough and moral enough to be willing to refuse to grow rich by dealing in human misery, indignity and death.

The United States, however, seems to have not learned this lesson. It is shameful that a country so rich and so powerful insists on profiting from the misery of the wretched, on deferring to the greed and animosity of warmongers for a modest profit (nationally), and on accepting and encouraging the ignorance of barbarians for the sake of a handful of immoral companies.

Illicit drug use declines in US teens, but increases in baby boomers

What do you call a generation of people who received free education, who grew up in the opulence of postwar America, who profited from America’s economic domination of the world, and elected to hoard all of the wealth and addle the three generations that follow them with crushing debt? You would call them the worst generation, of course. Discussions of their political and economic enslavement of the generations that followed them will come later. For now, let’s focus on this generation’s unabashed self-aggrandizement, which manifests itself in persistent drug abuse.

The results are from the most recent authoritative National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Two quotes from the article say it all.

In other words, the generation that was telling my generation, the gen-Xers of the 80s, to “just say no” is still having problems saying no. This hypocrisy would have been excusable were it not for the fact that the baby boomers insist on extending it to the financial sector, as well. It was ok for them to get free education and good healthcare, but not for us. It was ok for them to build businesses, but not for us. It was ok for them to become media moguls, but not for us.

Thus, those of us who are aware of the grotesque malice of the baby boomers continue to fume as we toil to live in substandard housing, to drive on abominable roads, and to drink, to climb rocks and to play video games in order to numb our brains out of the bland misery to which baby boomers have reduced American life and culture. Those not sufficiently numbed and not utterly exhausted by the boring life attempt suicide, move to another country or get trapped into the inanity of the Iraqi “War”. Others maintain a blog. The vast majority, the vanquished, eat, get fat, and watch TV.

And, so reap the baby boomers what they sowed long ago. All too happily, while they drive their SUVs and implicitly encourage wars that feed the SUVs.

What a wonderful world…

U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban – Los Angeles Times

The familiar refrain is “America is number one”. Stories like the one above ought to make one wonder “in what?” Concentration of wealth? Perhaps. Distribution of wealth? Not so. And, now, it seems not so when it comes to having safe products, either.

And, surely, many Americans will take pride in this ranking, for self respect and self worth are commodities that are present in scarce quantities in a land where just about everything is present in abundant quantities.

The Apple Store (U.S.)

This is why Apple shares are soaring. Look at the product. Look at the accessories: an airline power adapter! When so many people plunk down $2200 on a single purchase, the only way to go is up, Baby.

Honda To Boost Civic Production – International Business Times –

Today, Tuesday, November 14, 2006, the big three “American” automakers (Chrysler is not really American anymore) met with President Bush to beg for handouts. Getting creamed in the marketplace should be no grounds for handouts, but chances are that they will get it.

Interestingly, one request would be for the US government to move toward a universal payer system, like in Europe and Japan, whose automotive output has utterly vanquished the big three, especially GM.

Meanwhile, Honda is having problems meeting demand for its cars! After decades of customer clamor for fuel efficient cars, you think that GM would have understood, but they did not. They continued building on ancient chassis, ancient assembly lines and ancient technology in order to maintain 10% profitability in an industry defined by 3% profitability and high capital investments. The resulting erosion of market share for Ford and GM (Chrysler is doing surprisingly well) should come as no surprise. Of course, Chrysler’s exception may well be attributed it to its German ownership.

Ultimately, the fault falls on the shoulders of shareholders who are stupid enough to tolerate CEOs more concerned about their bonuses than the well-being of the company. Nevertheless, if the CEOs who commit this sort of highway robbery (literally, in a way) face with no consequences down the road, GM shareholders will not be the only ones who suffer from GM’s ultimate demise.

Ah, to have Honda’s problems….