http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/wal...

A great story from Fast Company magazine from a while back revealing just how anti-American business Wal-Mart really is.

Honestly, I'd say that if the economy collapses to the point where cash is worthless, gold will also be worthless, as it's value is also largely arbitrary, unless you're making fancy circuitry it doesn't have much intrinsic use apart from jewelry and a sort of social agreement that it's "precious."

Well, when the shit comes down, it's going to be more like Mad Max, where the negotiables will be food, gasoline, hand tools, warm clothing, ammunition, clean water, shelter, cigarettes, medicine, drugs, etc. I don't think shiny metal is going to trade very well, or if you're lucky, it will be like "OK, I'll trade that $1500 gold bar for a gallon of gasoline." Or even if you can pretend to get something close to it's value as gold, you're going to cut off "pieces of eight" to buy stuff?

Sorry, the value of gold is what society agrees it is, just like the value of paper money. One goes, the other goes. So if you're looking for gold as a survivalist asset, I'd say you'd be better off stocking up a reinforced underground bunker with non-perishable food, shotgun shells, water purification supplies, batteries or hand-crank lighting, seeds, farming implements, and a lot of books.

Bill Murray was featured in a parody video (sending up Perrier) where he's pitching "Swill" the bottled water that's dredged from Lake Erie.

He's in a restaurant with a hamburger, and he pours catsup on it, and it's all runny, but then he opens his bottle of Swill and goes to pour it over ice and it slowly oozes out of the bottle into the glass as the song "Anticipation" starts playing (a parody of the catsup commercial that was big at the time). The water is filled with dirt and debris an an old pop-top... but Bill likes his "with a twist."

Could only find it in German online, but you get the gist of it. I think the "water" was that old toy "Slime" that was sort of a rubbery blob of chemicals that you could do strange things with.

Enjoy: http://www.myvideo.de/watch/4630638/Swill

Suspending some kid for a week for bringing a twinkie or a roll of lifesavers from home?

This will probably get as idiotic as the suspensions for kids with nail clippers and aspirin.

I heard rumor of some school that's banned pencils and pens from students... if they're required for an activity, the teacher will issue and collect them in class, but no kids can carry their own, because they could conceivably be used to hurt someone? I guess it is mightier than the sword.

There's no winning this argument with Republicans. Yes, it's a catch-22 for Obama. If the economy recovers, pukes will say it was the tax cuts, so they should be extended. If the economy tanks, pukes will say it was because there was UNCERTAINTY due to the tax cuts only being for 2 yeas, so they should be made permanent.

Of course, you can't argue that the crap economy and growing deficits during the Bush years were due to the irresponsible tax cuts and outsourcing of the middle class. They can time the collapse to the point where it seemed LIKELY that Obama would be elected, so therefore the markets collapsed due to pending socialism and "the largest tax increase in history."

The only way to win is to not play.

So it's new to them, a whole new generation of potential fans. Removes the excuse for them to steal the music from torrent sites.

Plus, a lot of people buy on impulse, especially music. They hear a song in a movie or at a friend's house, and they want that song now. So they go to iTunes and pop the 99 cents or $1.29 or so to get the song.

And yes, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who think the only way they can get a song into their iPod and/or iTunes is to purchase it through the iTunes Store.

Plus, I'm sure Apple is paying a premium royalty rate and probably fronted a lot of money to get the rights, so they need to "shift a lot of units" to recoup this investment and turn a profit, ergo, advertise.

And hey, when you have some of the best music ever recorded, and basically exclusive rights to sell it in a specific format, you brag. It reinforces Apple's image (and the iPod) as the premium quality leader/innovator that all the others are imitating.

a friend of mine completely tunes out politics and most current events, claiming she's much happier (at least happier than me) because she's not worried, outraged, concerned, pissed about a bunch of stuff neither of us have the slightest bit of control or influence over. The government will do what it does, the corporations will do what they do, and all any one of us can do is try to navigate the path as well as we can and overcome our own personal obstacles and challenges.

It has a definite appeal, that notion.

The idea of insurance, Mittens, is that a pool of money is created where everyone chips in a relatively small amount, and then every so often, someone who has a need receives a larger amount, as agreed upon.

Perhaps his idea is a privatized unemployment insurance operation, where everyone chips in a larger amount than they do now, and the executives use that money to play the market and give themselves big bonuses, and if someone has a need for covered payments, deny the claim and/or make it nearly impossible to collect. Then, when the executives fuck up, go pleading to the government for a bail-out because the company is "too big to fail."

Sound about right, Mittens? Fuck you.

The media couldn't get over the Howard Dean "scream" and I really think that's what sank his campaign... of course, it didn't matter that he was trying to be heard over a shouting cheering crowd (that you couldn't hear through his isolated directional microphone) or that he'd been campaigning and speaking for months, so it's only natural for his voice to crack.

No, they made it out to be that he was some sort of maniac, too dangerous to be president.

Yeah, with Muskie's crying, the Nixon camp managed to spin it into some full-fledged mental illness. The same with Eagleton.

Shouldn't Boehner's constant weeping and frequent drunk appearances somehow count against him? No, they make him seem "more genuine."

Give me a giant fucking break.

Everything sticks to the left, nothing sticks to the right. And the right claims there's a liberal bias in the media.

"Most businesses do long-term multi-year planning, so two years is not enough time to really plan ahead, so you may not see so many jobs... nope, probably not. Now, if they'd been made PERMANENT, well then you betcha, would be a bonanza of hiring and competing for talented US workers and unemployment would drop like a rock and wages would skyrocket. BUT, well, since it's only two years, it won't help. Thanks though for the tax break... might buy a new boat in the spring or maybe some real estate in Costa Rica, or expand a factory in Taiwan."

I agree, the right can not use the "uncertainty" argument any longer either.

The tax rates have been historically low on the wealthy since the Bush Tax cuts kicked in, and there was no "uncertainty" about how long they would last.

The wealthy didn't do shit to create jobs. Instead, they offshored as much as possible, and "increased productivity" by making one person do the work that 2 or 3 formerly did, without paying them any more money.

Job creation sucked under Bush, and many/most of the people who are out of work now LOST their jobs under Bush, when there was still "certainty" about the tax rates.

A capitalist will not STOP earning because the tax rate is higher... instead, he should be motivated to gear up production to generate MORE profits to make up for the amount paid in taxes.

Resuming the Korean "conflict" should make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

While there are a lot of classics available for free, I tend to think very few people still read those titles. You should be able to browse the free sources above to see exactly what titles they have to offer. There's a book fair in town this weekend that advertises 250,000 items, but looking them over, it struck me how many of those books are likely to be absolutely unwanted by anyone anymore, and would remain unsold. What they do with them after the fair, I don't know. I hope they send them someplace where they might be used rather than just shredded or buried.

But I digress. You can get a Kindle for only $139 now, so not a huge investment, but what will add up are the costs of the books. $10 or $15 each for most popular titles. But once you've bought the book and read it, you have nothing physical to show for it. You can't easily loan it to someone else, you can't take it to a used book shop or try to sell it on Amazon. You've basically paid the money for the RIGHT to read that book on your device, rather than purchasing a proper book. Of course, you can re-read it on your device, if you do that sort of thing.

Amazon generally has a pretty lenient return policy, so I'd guess you can buy a kindle, download a few free titles to evaluate how you like the experience of reading on the Kindle, maybe buy a book or two, and give yourself 2 or 3 weeks to decide if it's right for you. If not, send it back. My father who's 77 has the Apple iPad and is enjoying it greatly as a news reader and has read a couple books on it I believe, so I don't know that there's any real "generational barrier" to it. If you're not computer savvy, it would probably be good if you had a friend or relative who might be able to help you if you get in a pinch.

I think a lot of the decision would depend where you do your reading... if you tend to read while traveling or commuting, or other situations where carrying around a Stephen King hardback isn't ideal, then the Kindle could be a blessing. But as you say, if you like the tactile experience of curling up on your sofa with a book and flipping the pages, you may want to just stick with printed books. Of course, you can always flip back and forth as you like, and if you get the Kindle and decide you don't like it after six months, there is an after market for used devices, or just give it to a friend. So, if you're curious, and you have the means to make the purchase, you might as well go for it rather than waiting and wondering for months or years longer. Who knows? It might jump start your enthusiasm for reading, and maybe it is time that you actually read "Treasure Island."

I went into F.Y.E. the music store, and OMG, the prices they were charging were full list price, and they just seemed astronomical compared to most music stores, and especially Amazon.

The Beatles mono box set was $299, which is list price, but I've never seen a store asking more than $200, and I got mine for closer to $100.

Vinyl albums were nearly $30, and most new release CDs were about $20.

They had a "clearance" area where one item was priced $42.99 but was marked "on sale" for $44.99.

Who shops at these places? Clueless grandmothers and captive tweens?

For the past year or so, all I've heard is that banks and businesses are sitting on trillions in cash, but will not lend or spend because of "uncertainty" that taxes might go up and the unknowns of "Obamacare."

And while I won't say the Republicans are in charge now (just running the House isn't enough), they will at least be able to prevent Obama and Democrats from enacting any sort of meaningful legislation.

We'll be at a standstill for the next two years, backsliding, while Obama and the Senate continue to get blamed and bloodied for the country's woes.

Businesses and banks will continue to hoard their cash rather than putting it into circulation. Why? Because it worked very well this election cycle, and it will work even better in 2012.

Then the Republican Apocalypse can start to play out.