Eschaton

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Debate Is FIERCE

FIERCE

AZ

Stay away, and run away screaming if you can.

Thursday Evening

Video fine, audio is NSFW.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Wanker of the Day

Barack Obama.

What Views?

I think reasonable people can disagree about building height limits in DC, but I've long been fascinated by the always asserted notion that with the current height limits there are unobstructed views of various DC landmarks all over the city. I've spent a reasonable time there and this just isn't true at all in any way.

Gambling Our Way To Prosperity

A second casino in the city is probably inevitable, and this is at least a decent enough (on transit) location for it.

The Freak Show

It's always difficult to resist talking about the latest Freak Show event. The temptation to scream SHUTUPTHISSOSTUPIDPLEASESTOPTALKINGABOUTIT is overwhelming. But that just seems to encourage.

No Wanker Today

Countdown has to finish Tuesday, so I'm running out of days off here.

I've been a bit jokey about the difficulties of writing the wanker posts, but in truth it has been difficult, though not because it's hard work or similar. The ESCHATON DECADE has been a pretty fucked up decade, a time when this country stopped even bothering to pretend to live up to many of its supposed ideals. We go to war and kill lots of people for no good reason, elites have eliminated any accountability for themselves for criminal wrongdoing, we've tortured and assassinated people, and the response to massive economic suffering and related criminal fraud has been to give lots of free money to the people who caused it all.

And one premise of his blog is that all of this shit happens, in part, because of the fucking wankers who rule our public discourse. Paying too much attention to it every day can be bad enough sometimes, but reliving it all again is actually a bit painful.

By request: Here's the story so far.

9th runner up Megan McArdle.


8th runner up Richard Cohen.


7th runner up Diane Sawyer.


6th runner up Jonah Goldberg.


5th runner up Lord Saletan.


4th runner up Mark Halperin.

Priorities

Some things should be scandals, but strangely aren't.
WASHINGTON — A fund to support homeowners in the communities hit hardest by the collapse of the housing bubble has disbursed just 3 percent of its budget and aided only 30,640 homeowners in the two years since its creation, according to a report released on Thursday by a federal watchdog office.

The Hardest Hit Fund, which was created in the spring of 2010, grants money to state housing finance agencies for efforts to help families that are facing foreclosure. It has “experienced significant delay” because of “a lack of comprehensive planning” by the Treasury Department and limited participation by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the large mortgage servicers, said the report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.


There are elements of the administration fail on housing that I chalk to the usual reasons (too cozy with the big banks, etc). But sometimes I look at what's happening and wonder if the people working on this stuff are just incompetent. You know, it's easy to sit around and talk about that great party you're going to have, but eventually someone has to go buy the kegs, hang up the decorations, and put the cocktail weenies in the oven. Doing stuff takes work.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

380K new lucky duckies. Last week's revised upwards +10K.

Not so good.

Conflicts Which I Can Hopefully Ignore

Ann Romney vs. Hilary Rosen.


Joe Eszterhas vs. Mel Gibson.

Lemmy Is Right

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

What Is Life Without A Touch Of Poetry In It

Reader s offers a haiku:

I like your blog much,



It does not take me long to



Read it in the morn'.

I Suppose I Do

That's Real Money

Odds of it being paid?
An Arkansas judge fined Johnson & Johnson $1.1 billion Wednesday because of how its Janssen subsidiary marketed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal through the state Medicaid program, the Associated Press reported.

Happy Hour Thread

So be happy.