Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet...If you ever needed proof that the stock market is divorced from the economy, consider that the major indices rose on the day that the next U.S. budget was forecast to have a $1.35 trillion deficit. The descendants of the Indians who sold Manhattan to the Dutch for $24 nearly 400 years ago should claim they were cheated and take-over Wall Street as a casino.
Da-deet-da-deet...Ninety-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens is one of a shrinking minority of intelligent jurists. Wrote he about the Black-Robed Nine’s scandalous decision to allow corporations to invest unlimited sums to buy politicians, "While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics."
Da-deet-da-deet...Hugo Chavez has been on the campaign stump for his candidates in the legislature. The Venezuelan despot declared, "I demand absolute loyalty to my leadership...anything else is betrayal....I am not an individual, I am the people. It's my duty to demand respect for the people....If you cherish the fatherland, join Chavez."
Da-deet-da-deet...A committee of the French parliament is calling for a ban on women wearing veils in public places, including "hospitals, schools, government offices and on public transport."
Da-deet-da-deet...Teenage pregnancy rates in the U.S. are soaring. The main reason is that over the past decade, Congress has spent $1.5 billion on abstinence only sex ed. Of course it didn’t work.
Da-deet-da-deet...Finally, a group of whacko art pedants wants to dig up Leonardo da Vinci’s 500 year-buried body to try to determine if he was a transvestite and the Mona Lisa was a self-portrait. No I’m not making this up. Said one critic of the plan, a professor of art history, "This sounds like a 1970s caper movie. Bring me the head of Lenny from Vinci!"
©2010 SetonnoteS
.