The Military and the White Power Facebook @8:56 AM
I've always wondered what it's like to have what they call White Pride. I mean, I understand people who like the Gay Pride, and the Black Pride and the East Asian Pride, and so when I think about it casually the White Pride doesn't sound so crazy? Though I always get hung up on what is the "white," since you know: were you white 100 years ago, Irish person, for instance? And the whole way "pride" veers into "supremacy" is more than a little troubling (less so when it is coming from the gays, because, ha, not so scared of them). So it is, yes, upsetting that US Soldiers are hanging out on the "racist version of Facebook run by the National Socialist Movement" and decrying the "multiculturalism." 16
Iran's Leaders And Candidates To Have Friendly Chit-Chat Get-Together @9:36 AM
"The Guardian Council, one of Iran's top oversight bodies, said Thursday it would invite the country's three unsuccessful presidential challengers to a meeting to discuss the contested weekend elections." Uh oh. You can imagine how that "meeting" ends. (The Council is calling the meeting "extra-ordinary." Yikes.) Let's hope they meet in a room with a drain in the floor. Also because: "At the same time, security agents rounded up three more prominent figures affiliated with Mr. Mousavi." 2
Air France Flight 447 Had "Radical Muslims" @9:15 AM
Noise? Or signal? Only time will tell! On crashed Air France flight 447, "two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic." Now, statistically speaking, surely at least a few people were on some government's list for something…. 9
Unemployment Trends Since 1989: Really, Really Bad @10:37 AM
New unemployment numbers this morning saw 637,000 new initial jobless claims last week. The number of people collecting unemployment nationally is now at 6.56 million. Disturbing: the number of those who are "long-term" unemployed (perhaps briefly) surpassed the number of short-term unemployed. These numbers do not include those of us who are working part-time, or have given up on filing for unemployment. But what does the jobs and income situation look like in context of the last twenty years?
The last twenty years of employment, through April 1, 2009, expressed as percent change year-to-year. READ MORE 7
Sell Some Stocks Now, Say Rich People @12:45 PM
There's big profit-taking market moves during the mini-rally! CEOs and chairmen are selling the holy bejeesus out of their stocks. For one, Jeff Bezos cashed in for $65 million on Amazon—somewhere near 1% of his Amazon stock holdings—and then sold some more, three days later. 3
