Something that I found in a sausage I ate last week.

This was at a German-themed place called The Berliner. Lucky for me I didn't break a tooth or my jaw.

Guess I'm not middle class.

My life is over. Or rather, the life I thought I was leading was not real.

So says Paul Krugman. Sadly I cannot disagree.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/money-and-class/

"The sad thing is that our fetishization of the middle class, our pretense that we’re almost all members of that class, is a major reason so many of us actually aren’t. That’s why the growing appreciation of class realities on the part of the public is a good thing; it raises the chances that we’ll actually start creating the kind of society we only pretend to have."

American Plutocracy eh?

Sadly so - http://progressive.org/welcome-to-the-american-plutocracy.

"For the purposes of corporate and special big-money interests, all those who dissent, protest, challenge or attempt to change what has been unfolding in modern American are now considered to be terrorists, and treated as such by our government. Every federal agency now operates under this assumption, even in the era of “hope” and “change.” Even an innocent trip to a movie theater might result in one being interrogated by federal agents.

Increasingly, journalists and whistleblowers are receiving the same treatment, branded by the corporate hand for a thorough investigation by federal law enforcement. We may be told that America is a nation of laws, but today those laws can be easily bent by those with enough money, turning our society’s rules into weapons against anyone who may threaten corporate gains."

More assholes polluting bus depots with their shit.

In this case, the shit is coming out of their mouth.

Man was he at the top of his game or what?

Wealth of richest 85 people = wealth of 3.5 BILLION poorest.

http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-summ-en.pdf

(h/t Zero Hedge)

Thank you Mr. Cavillo.

Thank you for making football something to be proud of once again in Montreal.

And for being so despite the adversity and uncertainty you faced.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/football/opinion/2014/01/anthony-calvillo-a-winner-beyond-the-gridiron.html

No wonder I look and feel so horrible.

It's the air -

...AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY
JANUARY 24...

* AIR QUALITY...LOW-LEVEL TEMPERATURE INVERSIONS AND LIGHT WINDS
  WILL RESULT IN WORSENING OF AIR QUALITY AT TIMES THROUGH NEXT
  FRIDAY.

* IMPACTS...LIMITED MOVEMENT OF THE AIR WILL ALLOW AIR POLLUTANTS
  TO INCREASE AT TIMES THROUGH NEXT FRIDAY. IMPACTS WILL BE
  GREATEST ON INDIVIDUALS WITH RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES.

* RESTRICTIONS/BURN BANS...CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL CLEAN AIR
  AGENCY FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS...SUCH AS BURN BANS...IN YOUR
  AREA.

Using technology to spy

Rogue Summary courtesy of Scientific American -

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pogue-a-short-history-of-unsavory-tech-snooping

April 1998: Microsoft orchestrates a phony grassroots campaign.
October 2005: Sony is caught planting a "virus" on its music CDs.
January 2010: Barnes & Noble understates the weight of its Nook tablet.
April 2011: Apple devices are logging users' locations.
May 2012: Google's Street View downloads citizens' private data.

And of course the big one -

June 2013: We learn that the National Security Agency has been eavesdropping on us.     

Well of course they've known.

It's not a surprise to me that the oil companies and governments know about the cause and impacts fossil fuel consumption and how it increases global warming. It's not anymore different than tobacco companies knowing for years about the dangers of nicotine and cigarettes -

http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/2117

The Frakenfood motherlode.

Frakenwheat - http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-gmo-wheat-crop-648/

I learned something about sociopaths in the corporate world today.

The bigger the asshole, the larger the turd.

Of course switching the order on those is sadly fairly consistent.

That is -

The bigger the turd, the bigger the asshole.

Stop US Congress from ending democracy ...

... and putting authority and rule of law into the hands of large multinational corporations who have no accountability to anyone.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-dont-renew-fast

Sign it.

I did.

The wonderful world of superweeds.

"In parts of the country, weeds resistant to the world's most popular herbicide, glyphosate, now grow in the vast majority of soybean, cotton, and corn fields," many of which were planted with seeds resistant to the weedkiller, said the study published in the journal Science in September."

http://news.yahoo.com/us-39-superweeds-39-epidemic-shines-spotlight-gmos-021125425.html

Applied knowledge is real power.

This whole 'knowledge is power' stuff is bunk.

Knowledge is just information. Just data in a database. Bytes in a computer.

It's potential.

It's only when you use knowledge to further some end and you achieve it, then it become important and valuable. It's the application on knowledge that's real power.

Hence:

Applied knowledge is real power.

Ruled by the 1%

Literally (h/t/ Truth-out)-

OpenSecretsBlog:

"Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 -- an increase from the previous year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate."

And how one might ask - do they stay wealthy? Why, sound investments of course!

"General Electric continued to be the most popular investment for current members of Congress. In 2011, there were 71 lawmakers who reported owning shares in the company; in 2012, there were 74. The second most popular holding was the bank Wells Fargo, in which 58 members owned shares (up from 40 in 2011). Financial firms were well-represented in the 10 most popular investments: Bank of America came in sixth (51 members) and JPMorgan Chase was seventh (49 members). Both companies had more congressional investors than in 2011 (11 more for Bank of America and 10 more for JPMorgan Chase.)

Investing in instruments like mutual funds, managed portfolios and even hedge funds continues to be a popular strategy. Besides providing good returns, they also cushion lawmakers from accusations of having a conflict of interest when they take actions on the job that might impact specific stocks."

Shit - why does it happen in life?

I mean apart from the reality that shitting a part and function of life; in my life I have observed three possible reasons why shit happens -

1) People don't understand why something is happening.

2) People refuse to acknowledge why something is happening.

And finally (and perhaps what I have seen the most) -

3) A combination of 1) and 2).

Officials say no risk of human-to-human transmission

Uh okay.

H5N1 bird flu death confirmed in Alberta, 1st in North America

"The person first showed symptoms of the flu on a Dec. 27 flight from Beijing to Vancouver aboard Air Canada flight 030. The passenger continued on to Edmonton on Air Canada flight 244, after spending a few hours in the Vancouver airport, and was admitted to hospital Jan. 1. The symptoms of fever, malaise and headache worsened and the patient died two days later. The Public Health Agency of Canada was notified Jan. 5."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/h5n1-bird-flu-death-confirmed-in-alberta-1st-in-north-america-1.2489160

I liked it better when Wikipedia referred to it solely as a 'polar vortex'.

This looks a lot more lame -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_North_American_cold_wave

Greed is pretty good in the short-term for corporate executives and management.

It's a disaster for everyone else.

Case in point - the source behind UPS' recent holiday delivery woes -

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2013/12/28/corporate-greed-root-late-ups-holiday-deliveries?utm

UPS delivers high profits to shareholders by keeping their labor costs low, which means low wages and long hours for workers. In southern states, like Florida, UPS hires temporary workers to deliver packages using unshielded golf carts. These workers are barely paid over minimum wage. UPS cuts corners by hiring these temporary workers off of the street, rather than adding more jobs and delivery routes for permanent employees during the holidays.

UPS’s long-established practice of inadequately staffing their operations seems to have finally caught up with them. Oliver put it this way: “So then they rely on drivers who don't know their routes and seasonal loaders who don't know where the boxes go, creating a back-up in service that then makes service failures for the company and customers’ gifts.”

These companies don't want to hire more permanent employees, because more of them would insist and define and advocate for wages, standards, and practices that are better suited for the work (smart companies know how to grow and nurture business model already know this is the right thing to be doing).

Short-term and narrow-mined people don't. And I find there's often a connection between people with those kinds of attitudes, and greed.

Happiness

I'm reminded at times throughout the day that happiness is a relative thing.

Watching others achieve something and being happy about it. Getting something from someone. Doing something really awesome. And so on and so on.

You could be happy that you got a raise for next year or next quarter, only to then turn around and discover the company is going under in a couple of years. In that case you can be happy now, but eventually unhappy later when you become unemployed.

Or you can have all the financial wealth possible, make smart decision on how to live life, and still be a grouch leaving and coming home every day because of one's personality, the people one has to deal with, and so on.

Some people derive happiness from things like pleasure - sex for example (I think that sex is just a way to keep one regular, or at least from going insane, as opposed to happy). Others derive happiness from watching others be happy. That would be hard for me to be if I'm constantly under stress watching others being happy - it's almost as if our collective existences are disconnected to a large degree.

I guess in a way happiness is a state of mind and body in one's life relative to others in your life.

Out w/the bad air, in w/the good.

Bon Jovi - top grossing live act of 2013? And without Sambora?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/bon-jovi-has-year-s-top-grossing-global-tour-1.2480149

I would not have guessed.