Saturday--

Some people were upset at Time Magazine's selection of the Bully-elect as their cover-boy "man" of the year. This article has some very interesting conclusions concerning the photograph they chose to use.

Ever since Ben Bernanke quoted bank robber Willie Sutton with reference to Social Security and Medicare in Congressional testimony I have expected something like this. I tried to read the bill itself by it is in many areas incomprehensible. What I did get follows along with Mother Jones's assessment and with past Repthuglican pronouncements. For another good analysis of the bill check out this piece on MSN. I love the description of the proposed "fix"--comparing it to how one "fixes" a cat.

Sunday--

An interesting article: The Golden Arches of Decline. It echoes much of what we have thought here for some time. Our big corporations no longer have any anchor to any place or people. They may have been established in a particular neighborhood and among a particular group of people but they long since cut its ties. They have no obligations to those places and people and the ties of "charity" are either abstract (given to nebulous groups who also don't have bonds to place and people) or don't really address the problems faced by the people and places they have left behind.