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	<title>VirusHead &#187; John McCain</title>
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		<title>IQ Spectrum with Palin in Doubledigitville</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/04/iq-spectrum-with-palin-in-doubledigitville</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/04/iq-spectrum-with-palin-in-doubledigitville#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:32:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2356</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[IQ is not without its biases, but it&#8217;s terrific for a broad-strokes comparison. I want smart competent people in leadership positions. It&#8217;s a complex world.
There&#8217;s a lot of discussion about the candidates&#8217; IQ scores, but I&#8217;ve only found good evidence for McCain and Palin (see links). The other scores are unverified and from multiple sources [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>IQ is not without its biases, but it&#8217;s terrific for a broad-strokes comparison. I want smart competent people in leadership positions. It&#8217;s a complex world.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a lot of discussion about the candidates&#8217; IQ scores, but I&#8217;ve only found good evidence for McCain and Palin (see links). The other scores are unverified and from multiple sources &#8211; please send any better figures/links in the comments and I will gladly update this. I&#8217;m throwing in some others for fun.</p>
<ul>
<li>>200 &#8211; &#8220;Unmeasurable genius&#8221;</li>
<li>180-200 &#8211; Highest genius</li>
<li>165-179 &#8211; High genius</li>
<li>155-164 &#8211; Genius (e.g., Nobel Prize winners)</li>
<li>145-154 &#8211; Genius (e.g., professors)</li>
<li>135-144 &#8211; Highly gifted (e.g., intellectuals)</li>
<li>125-134 &#8211; Gifted (e.g., post-graduate students)</li>
<li>115-124 &#8211; Above average (e.g., university students)</li>
</ul>
<p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li><strong>Over 140 &#8211; Genius or near genius</strong></li>
<ul>
<li>Garry Kasparov &#8211; IQ 190</li>
<li>Ludwig Wittgenstein &#8211; IQ 190 </li>
<li>Voltaire &#8211; IQ 190 </li>
<li>Leonardo da Vinci &#8211; IQ 180</li>
<li>Lord Byron &#8211; IQ 180 </li>
<li>Michelangelo &#8211; IQ 180</li>
<li>James Woods &#8211; IQ 180 </li>
<li>George Friedrich Handel &#8211; IQ 170</li>
<li>Stephen W. Hawking &#8211; IQ >160</li>
<li>Bill Clinton &#8211; IQ 159-182</li>
<li><strong>Barack Obama &#8211; IQ 148-172</strong></li>
<li>Plato &#8211; IQ 170</li>
<li>Galileo &#8211; IQ 165</li>
<li>Ludwig van Beethoven &#8211; IQ 165</li>
<li>Charles Darwin &#8211; IQ 165 </li>
<li>Charlotte Bronte &#8211; IQ 165</li>
<liAlbert Einstein - IQ 160</a></li>
<li>Jonathan Swift &#8211; IQ 155</li>
<li>Sharon Stone &#8211;  IQ 154</li>
<li>Abraham Lincoln &#8211; IQ 150</li>
<li>Franklin D. Roosevelt &#8211; IQ 147</li>
<li><strong>Joe Biden &#8211; IQ 146</strong></li>
<li>Richard Nixon &#8211; IQ 143</li>
</ul>
<li><strong>120 &#8211; 140 &#8211; Very superior intelligence</strong></li>
<ul>
<li>Hillary Clinton &#8211; IQ 140</li>
<li>Madonna &#8211; IQ 140 </li>
<li>Harry Truman &#8211; IQ 132</li>
<li>George W &#8211; IQ 91-134</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,992860,00.html">John McCain &#8211; IQ 133</a></strong></li>
<li>Jodie Foster &#8211; IQ 132 </li>
<li>Nicole Kidman &#8211; IQ 132 </li>
<li>Dwight D. Eisenhower &#8211; IQ 122</li>
</ul>
<li><strong>110 &#8211; 119 &#8211; Superior intelligence</strong></li>
<li><strong>90 &#8211; 109 &#8211; Normal or average intelligence</strong></li>
<ul>
<li>Ronald Reagan &#8211; IQ 105</li>
</ul>
<li><strong>80 &#8211; 89 &#8211; Dullness</strong></li>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/1520322-iq-test/image/20627720">Sarah Palin &#8211; IQ 82</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<li><strong>70 &#8211; 79 &#8211; Borderline deficiency</strong></li>
<li><strong>50-70 &#8211; Mild mental retardation</strong></li>
<li><strong>35-50 &#8211; Moderate mental retardation</strong></li>
<li><strong>20-35 &#8211; Severe mental retardation</strong></li>
<li><strong>IQ < 20 - Profound mental retardation</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>A score of 132 equals the top 2%</li>
<li>A score of 134 equals the top 1%</li>
<li>50% of IQ scores fall between 90 and 110</li>
<li>70% of IQ scores fall between 85 and 115</li>
<li>95% of IQ scores fall between 70 and 130</li>
<li>99.5% of IQ scores fall between 60 and 140
<li>
<li>A score of 68 equals the bottom 2%</li>
<li>A score of 66 equals the bottom 1%</li>
</ul>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>I VOTED!</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/04/i-voted</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/04/i-voted#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:35:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2352</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One more Georgia vote for Barack Obama! Woo-hoo!
Ben&#8217;s school was closed today, so I took some time from work and we went to the other little elementary school, where we vote. We went over at a little bit before 9:30 AM. The before-work voters had come and gone and the parking lot still have plenty [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One more Georgia vote for Barack Obama! Woo-hoo!</p>
<p>Ben&#8217;s school was closed today, so I took some time from work and we went to the other little elementary school, where we vote. We went over at a little bit before 9:30 AM. The before-work voters had come and gone and the parking lot still have plenty of spaces. We walked right in, filled in our form, showed our id, got approved, and got in line for the machines. There were no more than a dozen people ahead of us.</p>
<p>Everything went smoothly. I would like to have had some kind of paper trail, but oh well &#8211; it&#8217;s Georgia. </p>
<p>They were so nice to have given Ben a sticker. They didn&#8217;t have to, because of course he can&#8217;t vote, but it made him feel included in the process. He&#8217;s been interested in the election. He doesn&#8217;t understand a lot about many of the issues, but he says he just likes Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Our neighborhood is roughly half-and-half. I&#8217;m not too worried about on the ground corruption in this part of town. I have the feeling Georgia might be close. Most of the polls seem to give McCain a 2-point edge, but I&#8217;ve seen a few that give Obama the same. I think it will depend on whether the Republicans turn out &#8211; and they don&#8217;t seem very energized here this year. There&#8217;s nothing on the ballot about gays or abortions, and they don&#8217;t really feel so strongly about things like giving educational funds to developers or mandating school uniforms. It will be very close in Georgia &#8211; both our Senators vote with Bush on everything &#8211; but I think there&#8217;s a good chance that Obama will take it. </p>
<p>I feel very good about the election, and I&#8217;m hopeful that we&#8217;ll be waving &#8220;bye-bye&#8221; to some of the more destructive representatives on the far right. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s going to be a very exciting night. </p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/64105875@N00/2243800145" title="I'm a Georgia Voter"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2211/2243800145_690c3413ec.jpg" /></a></center></p>
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		<title>Halloween Hate, but a Better McCain</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/02/halloween-hate-but-a-better-mccain</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/02/halloween-hate-but-a-better-mccain#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:40:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2330</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If Ever the &#8220;Trick&#8221; Option Should Apply&#8230;.
This one burns me up. It&#8217;s really just a small item, but to me it is symptomatic of a larger trend. I have been watching the transformation of Halloween by certain sectors of pseudo-Christians for a few years now. First, the kids weren&#8217;t allowed to wear costumes to school, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>If Ever the &#8220;Trick&#8221; Option Should Apply&#8230;.</strong></p>
<p>This one burns me up. It&#8217;s really just a small item, but to me it is symptomatic of a larger trend. I have been watching the transformation of Halloween by certain sectors of pseudo-Christians for a few years now. First, the kids weren&#8217;t allowed to wear costumes to school, and the decorations stopped being made. Then, they moved &#8220;trick or treat&#8221; time earlier and earlier &#8211; I saw some kids out at 5:30 pm this year. Then suddenly, it wasn&#8217;t ok to do tricks. No TP&#8217;d trees, no soaped windows, no rotten eggs. At about the same time as the ten commandments started to appear in front yards (why not the sermon on the mount?), some families just started boycotting Halloween altogether. &#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s a pagan holiday, celebrating evil and the devil.&#8221; Yada yada. So MY KID would go to houses and get NADA &#8211; even when the people answered the door! </p>
<p>I grew up as a Jehovah&#8217;s Witness, and we didn&#8217;t celebrate any of the holidays. Either they had pagan or nationalistic roots, so they were all against my religion. Let me tell you, after Halloween there was always a lot to clean up. If we fled the house and went to Chinese and a movie, it was bad enough. But if we hovered in the back of the house with most of the lights out, we could HEAR people. (Oh, but we were pacifists. We wouldn&#8217;t <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7703990.stm">shoot trick or treaters with an AK-47 like this guy in South Carolina</a>. Sheeee-it!) </p>
<p>You don&#8217;t want to participate? Fine. There&#8217;s a small cost to you. It&#8217;s called a trick. It&#8217;s nothing really damaging, so suck it up. On one occasion, my thoughts were almost inclined to violence when I heard the sanctimonious explanation offered to my little kid for why he shouldn&#8217;t be celebrating Halloween. You can skip the smarmy lecture to my son! You&#8217;re fortunate that he was there, because I&#8217;m very qualified to argue with you on that topic &#8211; and more than willing &#8211; but I will not ruin my kid&#8217;s Halloween.</p>
<p>All of this is just the background for why what this Palin/McCain supporter did really pushes my buttons.</p>
<p>A woman living in a suburb of Detroit not only refused to give out candy to the children of Obama supporters, but actually posted a SIGN to that effect? Are you freakin&#8217; KIDDING me? Observe:</p>
<p><center><br />
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/02/halloween-hate-but-a-better-mccain">Click to view video</a></p><br />
</center></p>
<p>I am so proud of the kids and their parents who handled it so much better than I might have in their position. Me, I&#8217;d truck out at least a dozen year-old eggs. There is no excuse for this. It&#8217;s petty and small and evil. </p>
<p>I&#8217;m not blaming McCain, and I&#8217;m only blaming Palin a little, but I am blaming HER big-time! </p>
<p>Bad, bad, mean lady! Shame on you! Shame!</p>
<p><strong>John McCain: Diffusing the Hate on SNL &#8211; Thank you!</strong></p>
<p>McCain has been a little scary lately, and his followers on the fringes are even scarier. </p>
<p>One of the truly disturbing moments for me was when McCain addressed a crowd as &#8220;<a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_flub_My_fellow_prisoners_1008.html">my fellow prisoners</a>.&#8221; That&#8217;s not an incidental slip-up. </p>
<p>Who holds him &#8211; and us &#8211; prisoner? Terrorism? Neo-cons? The Saudi royal family? Big Oil, Pharma, Banking, and the rest? I wonder if he does really still feel like a prisoner, if he&#8217;s having flashbacks. Does he wonder about the consequences of selling out his previous integrity &#8211; or about who and what he sold his soul to, and what for? Does he feel like a victim of his own decisions?  Has he identified with the jailers? If you know anything about psychology, you have to wonder what that mind-set portends. Seriously, is he ok? </p>
<p>John Cleese was astounded:</p>
<p><center><br />
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/02/halloween-hate-but-a-better-mccain">Click to view video</a></p><br />
</center></p>
<p>In that regard, the late endorsement of Dick Cheney probably doesn&#8217;t help.</p>
<p>I have been wondering why McCain has gone so much more wrong. </p>
<p>So far, we&#8217;ve seen two major turning points. One was years ago, when after having been relentlessly attacked by the Rove smear and slander machine, he suddenly did an about-face. I can never look at that photo of McCain clinging to Bush without shuddering. Something is very, very wrong there. </p>
<p>Then, some months ago, an acceleration emerged through that deal with&#8230; whoever&#8230; when he voted against the anti-torture bill. I had always counted on him on that issue, at least. </p>
<p>It was at that point that the scary smile started appearing all the time, and there was a clearly-visible increased stress upon his body. Every one in a while, you could see a kind of rage in him, and his brown eyes would enlarge into a kind of madness or dementia. I think he was trying to project righteous courage or something, but it wasn&#8217;t working. I could only hope that it was a put-on, because if it wasn&#8217;t then that suggested to me that he needed serious psychological and even medical help.</p>
<p>So I think McCain made a good choice when he decided to appear on SNL. He showed a better side of himself, and presented himself as more like the guy I remember from years ago. I loved that comment, &#8220;I&#8217;m a real maverick &#8211; a Republican with no money!&#8221; The QVC products were funny, especially the Fein-gold Fine Gold displayed by wife Cindy (I still think of her as Cruella &#8211; she really gives me the creeps), the John McCain pork knives, the Ayers air freshener, and the off-to-the-side Palin 2012 teeshirts (Don&#8217;t wear them until after Tuesday). I laughed when Tina Fey said something about the campaigns being SO expensive (<a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/lettermans-top-10-list-sarah-p.html">as she stroked her lapel</a>). The &#8220;Weekend Update&#8221; segment was pretty good too. McCain was very good-natured about all the different campaign strategies.</p>
<p>I like someone who can poke fun at themselves, and I&#8217;ve always had a little more respect for people who could do that. I think he did much better than Palin on the show. Given what&#8217;s been happening among some of McCain&#8217;s followers, I think this was a good way to start to diffuse the bomb they&#8217;d been building. </p>
<p>So &#8211; thank you, Senator McCain &#8211; thank you for that. I don&#8217;t agree with your current views and policies, but you&#8217;re not a Dick Cheney. I know there&#8217;s a good man in there somewhere, trying to do his best. </p>
<p>Don&#8217;t worry &#8211; you&#8217;ll be able to work with President Obama. </p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Revamped for the Election</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/01/revamped-for-the-election</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/11/01/revamped-for-the-election#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:24:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Too bad I couldn&#8217;t find the custom canines, but I think the fangs are clearly implied.



I am so very happy that I can celebrate such things. Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses and other groups who can&#8217;t find the spirit in Hallowe&#8217;en are really missing out.
As the photos de-monstrate, I embraced my shadow and it was as thrilling and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Too bad I couldn&#8217;t find the custom canines, but I think the fangs are clearly implied.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v1_08.jpg"><img src="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v1_08.jpg" alt="" title="VH 1" width="400" height="411" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2317" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v2_08.jpg"><img src="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v2_08.jpg" alt="" title="VH2" width="400" height="435" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2318" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v3_08.jpg"><img src="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/heidi_v3_08.jpg" alt="" title="VH3" width="400" height="439" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2319" /></a></p>
<p>I am so very happy that I can celebrate such things. Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses and other groups who can&#8217;t find the spirit in Hallowe&#8217;en are really missing out.</p>
<p>As the photos de-monstrate, I embraced my <a href="http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t9506.html">shadow</a> and it was as thrilling and as unnerving as always. Found a few more worthy bits to reposition, save and integrate. Such exploration is palpably good for the soul (despite appearances). </p>
<p>I call attention to the construction of the word &#8220;demonstrate&#8221; with a hyphen. Why?</p>
<p>Latin dēmōnstrāre, dēmōnstrāt- : dē-, <strong>completely</strong>; see de– + mōnstrāre, <strong>to show</strong> (from mōnstrum, <strong>divine portent</strong>, from monēre, <strong>to warn</strong>). </p>
<p>To divinely portend, to call out a warning, to make manifest or apparent, display, evidence, evince, exhibit, manifest, proclaim, reveal, show, authenticate, bear out, confirm, corroborate, endorse, establish, evidence, prove, substantiate, validate, verify. </p>
<p>To demonstrate is thus also to un-conceal, to dis-cover. </p>
<p>Truth as endorsed warning and as authentic manifestation of such warning AS truth &#8211; but also holding a warning about that very act. A complete showing that warns about itself, like an Angel of Annunciation. But do not fear.</p>
<p>Oh, it&#8217;s a lovely emblematic truthing, but with a warning about that truth, too. The truth will set you free, but it&#8217;s not always easy. </p>
<p>The word &#8220;demonstrate&#8221; also suggests something to the ear &#8211; &#8220;demon-straight.&#8221; </p>
<p>Damned straight! Straight to hell! It shows what we most demonize, but what we demonize is also sacred to us because there is an attraction at the heart of the repulsion. It&#8217;s inherently unstable with regard to anything but its power.</p>
<p>Such signage can be archetypal and playful identifications can de-&#8221;monster&#8221; &#8211; precisely by letting the demon-monster live for a little while, so that one can pick up some of the good monster traits while letting go of elements that have been recognized (but no longer denied or forgotten).</p>
<p>I am not free of the vampire. Where is that body? Where is that blood? Gimme communion. Gimme carnality and spirit. Gimme unrepressed gratification of my desires. I would love to swoon. I would love to take a walk on the dark side. Of course, I pass out at the sight of blood, but I do love vampire novels. It&#8217;s all a dream, and to pick out the parts that really can be integrated into me, into my life, into my own sense of ethics and my own spiritual journey, is always enlightening. It reminds me a lot of the way I used to collect rocks. </p>
<p>I think McCain and some of the Republican Party are vampires, and that is what I despise about them.  I do love to despise their bloodthirstiness, their preying upon the sub-millionaires among us, their cynical manipulations of the public, their disregard of what it takes for people and countries to thrive.  And it&#8217;s true &#8211; so true &#8211; that they are vampires in these ways. </p>
<p>But Barack Obama is right, I think, not to manifest and feed that set of truths because it can&#8217;t be taken playfully or dissipated with court-jester humor that speaks truth. It&#8217;s too real, and the consequences are too important. The alternative is to recognize, but to lead with an different vision, one that refuses to demonize others. We are all Americans, after all, and a President should think of just as many of the people as he or she can. </p>
<p>I think it is wise to have elections a few days after Hallowe&#8217;en, and it is especially important this year. It works the same way as a picture of Cheney as the Evil Emperor with George W as Darth Vader; the fear that is inspired by the recognition of a deep truth in it is &#8211; at the same time &#8211; dissipated through its very manifestation. They really ARE those characters, and thank goodness they really aren&#8217;t. </p>
<p>I have been fearing that what (at least a subset of) the Republicans are trying to catalyze will work, and that hatred and violence will escalate. I am hoping that projections of evil otherness must at some point become so obvious, so de-monstrable even to the far-right wing, that they will just fall down and implode. It looks a little better now for the latter scenario than it did even a week ago. </p>
<p>After such playful shadow-work as seems inherent in the celebrations and rituals of Hallowe&#8217;en, I am less angry, and much more hopeful. </p>
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		<title>Calculate your Tax Savings</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/25/calculate-your-tax-savings</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/25/calculate-your-tax-savings#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:36:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2309</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[See your tax cut under Obama&#8217;s plan, and compare it to the McCain plan. 


&#8220;Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle &#8212; indeed, he [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>See your tax cut under Obama&#8217;s plan, and compare it to the McCain plan. </p>
<p><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48f203eebb67a86f/48f61f14716e07e3/48f203ee5b324878/f945097b/widget.js"></script></p>
<blockquote>
<p>&#8220;Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle &#8212; indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would.&#8221; [Sebatian Mallaby, Washington Post, 9/8/08]</p>
<p>Rea Hederman Jr., a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation &#8220;said the middle class would likely pay less under Mr. Obama&#8217;s plan than Mr. McCain&#8217;s.&#8221; [NY Sun, 8/15/08]</p>
<p>Obama’s tax calculator is “a very simple gadget that’s the most useful thing I’ve seen on any political website in a while.” [Forbes.com, 10/08]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/84992687@N00/2287332094" title="Barack Obama in Austin"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/2287332094_c170aeddb1_m.jpg" /></a></p>
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		<title>Disturbing Lies, Hate, Incitement to Violence</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/19/disturbing-lies-hate-incitement-to-violence</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/19/disturbing-lies-hate-incitement-to-violence#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:19:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been profoundly disturbed by seeing certain kinds of beliefs and accusations that I&#8217;m observing &#8211; not only from under-informed folk at rallies, but even from so-called christian blogs and in emails from people who should really know better.

We have a deep need to feel better about ourselves as a nation, but lying to ourselves [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been profoundly disturbed by seeing certain kinds of beliefs and accusations that I&#8217;m observing &#8211; not only from under-informed folk at rallies, but even from so-called christian blogs and in emails from people who should really know better.</p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/76714697@N00/15818786" title="(H)ATE"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/15818786_4d1a1b251f.jpg" /></a></center></p>
<p>We have a deep need to feel better about ourselves as a nation, but lying to ourselves isn&#8217;t the way to do it, and neither is hate or fear or scapegoating or any of those other strategies that have been used here and elsewhere to such destructive effect. Smears, lies, hatred and incitement to violence do not reflect well on anyone. Can we agree on that?</p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/50016673@N00/155309466" title="ugly"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/62/155309466_3cbd0975a0_m.jpg" /></a></center></p>
<p>My prayers today are for the ones who consider themselves christians, but are participating in this kind of thing. I sincerely hope that you will be able to receive the guidance that you seem to need, and can re-attune to the deepest message and source of your faith from where you are right now.  </p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/15925384@N00/773887640" title="Light of Eternity - (Free Download)"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1294/773887640_08d7f0b79a.jpg" /></a></center></p>
<p>Regardless of who you decide deserves your vote, it&#8217;s time to get back on speaking terms with the best within you, not the worst.</p>
<p>The state of this country right now can be (at least partially) attributed to the successful demonization of anything and anyone remotely left-wing, liberal, progressive &#8211; even centrist Democrat &#8211; by the increasingly off-track right wing and its public propagandists. I have been resisting the idea that any significant number of Americans could be taken in by these machinations, but I&#8217;ve been thrown off by some of the stuff that I am seeing today. I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve seen some of it, too.  </p>
<p>It is not only unseemly and depressing that some Americans can be so easily propelled by the worst that is within them, but it also brings an ethical responsibility for the results.  Be careful of what you bring on, Palin and McCain (and all of the surrogate voices). </p>
<p>All of this talk about Barack Obama being an Arab or a Muslim or a terrorist (and don&#8217;t all those words start to kind of blend together?) really bothers me on a number of levels. </p>
<p>First, it reveals our national prejudices in a particularly nasty way. Does it not occur to you that there are American Arabs and Muslims? What&#8217;s <strong>wrong</strong> with you? </p>
<p>You can&#8217;t conflate these things. All Arabs aren&#8217;t bad. All Muslims aren&#8217;t bad. Just as all Christians aren&#8217;t bad. Think on that. Remember the Crusades, and the Inquisitions, and the way some contemporary Christians want to turn this nation into a kind of theocratic dictatorship that completely misses Jesus&#8217; call and message. The militant and controlling delusions of the super-authoritarian fringes among ALL of the &#8220;people of the book&#8221; is very troubling.  </p>
<p>And then, there&#8217;s just the plain facts that Obama is not an Arab. He&#8217;s not a Muslim. He&#8217;s not a terrorist. </p>
<p>He&#8217;s not anti-American.<br />
He&#8217;s not a traitor.<br />
He&#8217;s not a mole. </p>
<p>I cannot believe I&#8217;m seeing this kind of thing. </p>
<p>Barack Obama is not a socialist, either. He&#8217;s a capitalist &#8211; just not the kind of capitalist that will exploit and plunder our economy or our environment because of rampant corruption and greed. He&#8217;s not the kind of capitalist that will appoint former industry lobbyists as directors of the organizations meant to oversee those industries. He&#8217;s not going to put the interests of the top 5 percent over the interests of the 95 percent, but he&#8217;s not talking a revolution of the masses either. Obama is actually rather centrist, fair, practical and level-headed. His plans call for a strengthening of the middle-class, the backbone of our nation. If the middle-class falls, multinationals will simply take their business elsewhere.</p>
<p>Now, Barack Obama isn&#8217;t a messiah either, and those who either over-idealize him or criticize him (on the basis that some people are pretty desperate for such hope as he could represent) exaggerate his importance. However, I think he could do some real good for Americans, for America, and also for world stability. He does make me feel hopeful that we might be able to start to undo some of the terrible damage that has been done. </p>
<p>People have used the methods of terrorism for a long time. Wake up! If you want to fight terrorism, don&#8217;t be terrified and manipulated!</p>
<p>Do you really think it&#8217;s a coincidence that our friends and allies &#8211; after dealing with Bush for 8 years &#8211; would overwhelmingly prefer to see Obama elected than McCain? Are they all evil then? Have we become that insular and self-centered and frightened that we can&#8217;t take a good hard look at what has happened to our status among the rest of the world&#8217;s population? They think the populace here must be stupid and crazy, living in a dream world. </p>
<p>I think that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a much better chance of helping us to navigate through the next few years than do John McCain and Sarah Palin. I am very disappointed in how McCain has changed, and I&#8217;ll be nice and not give you my list of Palin criticisms today.</p>
<p>We really are in a huge mess on a number of different fronts &#8211; both internally and externally &#8211; and we need the best we can get. My vote is for Barack Obama. As we find out more and more about what the Bush/Cheney administration has really cost us &#8211; and I fear we&#8217;ve not even seen the half of that yet &#8211; we need someone like him.</p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/64105875@N00/2243800145" title="I'm a Georgia Voter"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2211/2243800145_690c3413ec_m.jpg" /></a></center></p>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Credit Contraction Thoughts (and a question for you)</title>
		<link>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/01/credit-contraction-thoughts</link>
		<comments>http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2008/10/01/credit-contraction-thoughts#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>VirusHead</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2190</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s been a lot of discussion about the causes of our current financial crisis. I, for one, do not ever care to hear the Wall Street/Main Street framing again. Really, is that the best we can do? Have we no sense of language? 
The &#8220;credit contraction&#8221; or &#8220;credit crunch&#8221; involved, among other things, financial institutions [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of discussion about the causes of our current financial crisis. I, for one, do not ever care to hear the Wall Street/Main Street framing again. Really, is that the best we can do? Have we no sense of <em>language</em>? </p>
<p>The &#8220;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122282719885793047.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">credit contraction</a>&#8221; or &#8220;credit crunch&#8221; involved, among other things, financial institutions that were &#8220;shot through with short-termism, deceptive practices and self-dealing.&#8221; I can&#8217;t help but think that unrestrained (dare I say &#8220;unregulated&#8221;?) greed is at the root of quite a lot of what has happened.</p>
<p><center><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/89875351@N00/2843636316" title="Credit crunch"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2843636316_0de873b8be_m.jpg" /></a></center></p>
<p>In this regard, one thing I haven&#8217;t really heard much about lately are the <a href="http://www.responsiblelending.org/issues/mortgage/sevensigns.html">predatory mortgage lending practices</a> that have flourished under this administration. Predatory lending practices are  abusive, stripping borrowers of home equity and threatening families with bankruptcy and foreclosure. </p>
<p>Abusive loan practices include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Intentionally steering you to a higher cost loan when you qualify for a lower one</li>
<li>Putting you into a loan you cannot afford based on your income or assets</li>
<li>Charging high interest rates and fees</li>
<li>Breaking verbal promises &#038; terms or “bait and switch” at closing (we saw this one ourselves in the difference between the &#8220;good faith estimate&#8221; and the reality of the mortgage payment amount)</li>
<li>Getting inflated appraisals to loan you more than your home is worth</li>
<li>Loans with balloon payments</li>
<li>Coaching you to lie or be dishonest on your loan application</li>
<li>Putting you into a “stated income” or “no document loan”</li>
<li>Loan “flipping” or constant refinancing</li>
<li>&#8220;Hard Money” lending</li>
<li>Loans with payments that start low and go high (my <a href="http://studentloanjustice.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/4/">student loan</a> does this)</li>
<li>Including prepayment penalties</li>
<li>Failing to properly credit loan payments in a timely way</li>
<li>Charging escrow fees when not provided by the note or deed of trust</li>
<li>Issuing loan payoff statements full of inflated and improper fees</li>
</ul>
<p>Let me tell you about the practices that have led to the ballooning of my <a href="http://www.joesdebt.com/">student loan debt</a>&#8230; but no, if I think about it I get heart palpitations and I&#8217;m already not feeling well today.</p>
<p>Something that seems to have made everything worse was the overturning of some regulatory safeguards.  For some, the spotlight for this is on Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain campaign adviser and a lobbyist for a Swiss bank:</p>
<blockquote><p>Eight years ago, as part of a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html">decades-long anti-regulatory crusade</a>, Gramm pulled a sly legislative maneuver that greased the way to the multibillion-dollar subprime meltdown. Yet has Gramm been banished from the corridors of power? Reviled as the villain who bankrupted Middle America? Hardly. Now a well-paid executive at a Swiss bank, Gramm cochairs Sen. John McCain&#8217;s presidential campaign and advises the Republican candidate on economic matters. He&#8217;s been mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary should McCain win. That&#8217;s right: A guy who helped screw up the global financial system could end up in charge of US economic policy. Talk about a market failure.</p></blockquote>
<p>I&#8217;m interested in the fact that there is very little real discussion (that makes any sense to me, anyway) about the effects of abstract speculation (<a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gOZTtahVNy4kICgeQueTNyWQybJAD93H9HL80">gambling</a>), or in the practices of <a href="http://www.affil.org/consumer_rsc/usury.php">usury</a> (it used to be considered a sin) that surround every consumer every day. </p>
<p>Institutions that put too much of their working capital on the line with <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0613/p03s09-uspo.html">speculation</a> and excessive risks went down &#8211; and shouldn&#8217;t they? But we&#8217;re so interconnected anymore that the markets have become like clusters of artificial intelligence with everything affecting everything else, so what can be done? </p>
<p>Paul Krugman usually has something interesting to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>
Paulson grabbed hold of the wrong end of the stick — he should have been seeking to <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/bailout-narratives/">expand bank capital</a>, taking an ownership share in compensation, rather than trying to push up the value of toxic paper.</p></blockquote>
<p>I just don&#8217;t know. A couple of days ago, my bank <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2008/09/29/daily19.html">Wachovia</a> was aquired by&#8230; <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2008/db20080929_369126.htm">Citi</a>. Since I swore several years ago never to deal with them again, I turned to Washington Mutual (WaMu). Oops! <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2008/09/30/the-beauty-of-washington-mutuals-collapse.aspx">Too late</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there was the whole <a href="http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/CSHomePrice_Release_093042.pdf">inflation of house prices&#8230; and then its decline</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/08-09-30_cs-hpi.png"><img src="http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/08-09-30_cs-hpi.png" alt="" title="Home Prices" width="500" height="397" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2191" /></a></p>
<p>Some are blaming <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/blame_it.html">immigrants</a>. Economic crisis brings out the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scapegoating">scapegoating</a> impulse. Some are blaming <a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/18/larry-kudlow-blames-congress-and-low-income-families-for-housing-crisis-guilty-liberal-consciences-forced-banks-to-make-bad-loans/">anti-racist policies</a>. Some are blaming <a href="http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/75305">poor people</a>. </p>
<p>Lots of blame to go around, for sure. Blame <a href="http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home">war</a>, blame the <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np">national deficit and the resulting increase in the mind-boggling national debt</a>, blame corporations who send their <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/halliburtons-dubai-move----negative/story.aspx?guid={1BAF9477-2F81-4624-BE98-A8AB21821E9A}">money to Dubai</a> after landing lucrative if <a href="http://www.contractormisconduct.org/">wasteful</a> and <a href="http://www.coastalpost.com/08/10/14.html">corrupt</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082200049.html">contracts</a> (not naming names or anything), blame <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2008/db20080815_021990.htm">inflation</a>, the <a href="http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com/2008/09/crushing-truth-about-us-household-debt.html">average household debt</a>, rising <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/10/01/oil-spike-will-a-financial-bailout-push-crude-back-up/">energy</a> and <a href="http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/outside.jsp?survey=ap">food</a> and <a href="http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&#038;context=christopher_robertson">healthcare</a> costs, <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm">more productivity</a> for <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm">less wages</a>, the <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Tale-of-Two-Economies-by-Anthony-Wade-080930-326.htmlp">class warfare</a> from the <a href="http://www.lcurve.org/">super-rich</a> to the <a href="http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/">middle class</a>&#8230; </p>
<p>There were a lot of people here in Atlanta that were <a href="http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/gentrification.htm">pushed out of their homes</a> because the neighborhood values went up, and so did <a href="http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5797160&#038;version=1&#038;locale=EN-US&#038;layoutCode=TSTY&#038;pageId=3.2.1">their taxes</a>. In some neighborhoods here, you could send a kid to a rather nice college for the yearly tax bill. I would like to see some figures on how that escalated in newly-gentrified neighborhoods.  </p>
<p>There was also the optimism about jobs that led to unrealistic assessments of homeowner affordability (what happened to the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_bi_ge/cash_strapped_homeowners">30% of your income rule</a>?). Add to this the emergence of the professional <a href="http://www.davemanuel.com/2007/08/07/home-flippers-beware-the-market-for-mortgages-is-tightening/">home-flippers</a>. I think that took a toll among the middle class. </p>
<blockquote><p>(T)he tanking real estate market &#8220;shifted from subprime loans made to borrowers with poor credit to homeowners who had solid credit but took out exotic loans with ballooning monthly payments.&#8221; Bloomberg reported that 3 million American homeowners are holding prime (or, actually, semi-prime) &#8220;alt-A&#8221; loans (don&#8217;t ask) worth about $1 trillion, or $150 billion more than the entire outstanding subprime market. As those loans &#8212; many of which were taken on investment properties by <a href="http://www.alternet.org/workplace/99703/?page=3">people expecting a nice, quick turnover</a> &#8212; started to go belly-up, a panic ensued. &#8230;That posed a risk to the mammoth and wholly unregulated market in insurance on bad loans that had grown up around these new kinds of investments. The market in what are known as &#8220;credit default swaps&#8221; is of unknown size, but it&#8217;s estimated to be worth as much as $60 trillion, most of it essentially paper backed by too little in the way of hard assets.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/39735679@N00/2869645739" title="No Known Restrictions: "Wall Street Bubbles; - Always the Same" / J. Ottmann Lith. Co, 1901 (LOC)"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/2869645739_13fe853da2.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not an economist, and I must admit that I don&#8217;t understand all the complicated workings of the financial sector. I do, however, have a very deep suspicion toward this administration, and some of the <a href="http://www.campaignwatch.org/details.htm">family background</a> alone on these topics is a little chilling before you even look at the real power-players like the visible <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1238589.html">Cheney</a> (and the less-visible ones, too). </p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=4885">Document</a> uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse &#038; George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.</p></blockquote>
<p>In light of all I know and suspect about imperial <a href="http://www.neoconstant.com/1341/conservatism-neoconservatism-and-economic-crisis/">neocons</a> and <a href="http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_962.shtml">fascists</a> in our government, I do feel pretty secure with the strategy of tracking and analyzing the flow of <a href="http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html">capital and power</a> if you want to understand what&#8217;s happening. And, in this regard, I&#8217;m rather fond of <a href="http://www.chomsky.info/">Noam Chomsky</a>. This is what he had to say at a recent <a href="http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18958">summit on the problems of Latin America and the Caribbean</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>We might also take note of the striking similarity between the structural adjustment programs imposed on the weak by the International Monetary Fund, and the huge financial bailout that is on the front pages today in the North. The US executive-director of the IMF, adopting an image from the Mafia, described the institution as &#8220;the credit community&#8217;s enforcer.&#8221;  Under the rules of the Western-run international economy, investors make loans to third world tyrannies, and since the loans carry considerable risk, make enormous profits. Suppose the borrower defaults. In a capitalist economy, the lenders would incur the loss. But really existing capitalism functions quite differently. If the borrowers cannot pay the debts, then the IMF steps in to guarantee that lenders and investors are protected. The debt is transferred to the poor population of the debtor country, who never borrowed the money in the first place and gained little if anything from it. That is called &#8220;structural adjustment.&#8221; And taxpayers in the rich country, who also gained nothing from the loans, sustain the IMF through their taxes. These doctrines do not derive from economic theory; they merely reflect the distribution of decision-making power.</p>
<p>The designers of the international economy sternly demand that the poor accept market discipline, but they ensure that they themselves are protected from its ravages, a useful arrangement that goes back to the origins of modern industrial capitalism, and played a large role in dividing the world into rich and poor societies, the first and third worlds.</p>
<p>This wonderful anti-market system designed by self-proclaimed market enthusiasts is now being implemented in the United States, to deal with the very ominous crisis of financial markets. In general, markets have well-known inefficiencies. One is that transactions do not take into account the effect on others who are not party to the transaction. These so-called &#8220;externalities&#8221; can be huge. That is particularly so in the case of financial institutions. Their task is to take risks, and if well-managed, to ensure that potential losses to themselves will be covered. To themselves. </p>
<p>Under capitalist rules, it is not their business to consider the cost to others if their practices lead to financial crisis, as they regularly do. In economists&#8217; terms, risk is underpriced, because systemic risk is not priced into decisions. That leads to repeated crisis, naturally. At that point, we turn to the IMF solution. The costs are transferred to the public, which had nothing to do with the risky choices but is now compelled to pay the costs &#8211; in the US, perhaps mounting to about $1 trillion right now.  And of course the public has no voice in determining these outcomes, any more than poor peasants have a voice in being subjected to cruel structural adjustment programs.</p>
<p> A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that cost and risk are socialized, while profit is privatized. That principle extends far beyond financial institutions. Much the same is true for the entire advanced economy, which relies extensively on the dynamic state sector for innovation, for basic research and development, for procurement when purchasers are unavailable, for direct bail-outs, and in numerous other ways. These mechanisms are the domestic counterpart of imperial and neocolonial hegemony, formalized in World Trade Organization rules and the misleadingly named &#8220;free trade agreements.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Hey, you knew I was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism">liberal</a>, right?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m thinking about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System">Federal Reserve</a>.</p>
<p>So, here&#8217;s a question for you: How much money is the U.S. government printing up <em>right now</em>? Can anyone give me a link to a chart that shows the history of that for the last ten years? I can&#8217;t find one -can you?</p>
<p><center><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2392/1561381454_f69ec42a61_m.jpg" /></a></center></p>
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