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FDIC isn't all you have to worry about. The bankers love to tell you about the "benefits" 
of keeping your valuables under their thumb, but First National Mattress never pulls a stunt 
like this...
I've been reading about these violent storms we've been having over the last few weeks....
In one story, there were accounts of injuries and deaths in Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia, & Arkansas, with property damage in North & South Carolina due to various tornados. Many people have been made homeless in all these places.
In another story, I read the U.S. gov't is begging the Myanmar(Burma) army to accept food, water, and medicine, after a cyclone (hurricane) hit. "28,000 pounds of supplies, including mosquito nets, blankets and water" sent after "prolonged negotiations", according to the story. Exactly what we get in return is not mentioned...
While I didn't pay the most attention in civics class, I don't recall seeing Myanmar/Burma on that list of the 50 states. Maybe it's in there with Puerto Rico & Guam? Lest you think the Burmese army is not doing its part, they are making sure to portray these supplies as gifts from the local army generals. "A gift to the Myanmar people from the most Hon. Gen. Whang Hang Low" etc, painted on the sides.
I think American 'help' would be best invested helping ... Americans. Maybe that's just the tinfoil talking.
Extra credit:
1) Find a world map or globe
2) Place 1 finger on Burma and another on ... Missouri
3) Take a dollar out of your pocket and answer the folowing... Where is this best spent and most likely to be used for its intended purpose?
An article in the Asia Times calling for a US military"intervention" in the name of humanitarian aid of Burma. Anyone remember a place called Somalia? BlackHawk Down, anyone?
from http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JE10Ae01.html
The case for invading Myanmar
By Shawn W Crispin
BANGKOK - A unilateral - and potentially United Nations-approved - US military intervention in the name of humanitarianism could easily turn the tide against the impoverished country's unpopular military leaders, and simultaneously rehabilitate the legacy of lame-duck US President George W Bush's controversial pre-emptive military policies.
The plan of this was actually announced... what? two years ago?
Did your "mainstream" media clue you in? Or were they busy distracting you with garbage?
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=140582
Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in US dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing US pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.
Oil is priced in US dollars on the world market, and the currency's depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves. "The dollar has totally been removed from Iran's oil transactions," Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told state-run television Wednesday. "We have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in non-dollar currencies."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the depreciating dollar a "worthless piece of paper" at a rare summit last year in Saudi Arabia attended by state leaders from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran put pressure on other OPEC countries at the meeting to price oil in a basket of currencies, but it has not been able to generate support from fellow members -- many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch US allies.
Nah, it must be propaganda. Everyone knows the dollar is as strong as ever. Who would turn it away?
"Vicious lies by foreign media!!"... you hope (or maybe that shoud be "mope")
Águas de Março (Waters of March)
The portuguese version is better than the english. The 'loiyaz' 
sometimes get testy when people post the lyrics/translations (especially if you do a better job than them), so I won't, but anyone interested can find a good translation of the Brazilian version. I did see an english subtitled version of the portuguese lyrics, but it's a bit choppy.
If you've ever wondered why the powers-that-be are not too worried about Soc. Sec, here's why...
Americans have no legal claim on the money Uncle Sam theoretically salts away for their golden years. In the case of Flemming v. Nestor, Bulgarian* immigrant Ephram Nestor was deported in 1956 for being a Communist in the 1930s. After Congress prohibited Social Security benefits for deportees in 1954, Nestor sued. He claimed title to his FICA tax payments between 1936 and 1955. The Supreme Court disagreed. As it ruled, 'To engraft upon the Social Security system a concept of 'accrued property rights' would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands.'
This decision reflected the Court's precedent in Helvering v. Davis. In 1937, it ruled that Social Security taxes "are to be paid into the Treasury like any other internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way."
"It was doubtless out of an awareness of the need for such flexibility that Congress included in the original [Social Security] Act, and has since retained, a clause expressly reserving to it '[t]he right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision' of the Act. 1104, 49 Stat. 648, 42 U.S.C. 1304. That provision makes express what is implicit in the institutional needs of the program."
—Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603 (1960)
easy reading sources:
http://www.urban.org/publications/310232.html
http://www.socialsecurity.org/daily/06-22-99.html
*(No actual Bulgarians were harmed in the making of this blog entry) 
Something light-hearted for your Monday... 
... unless you get stuck.
Took me a while to finish level 11. 
http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/779704/best_video_of_the_year_blind_kid_uses_sound_to_see.swf
Wow. Human echo-location.
Two versions of this explanation of the "why" of things, by George Carlin: on stage & voice over.
Here are a couple of vids people have make to this Kenny Rogers song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2-APrweQOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOaoP1u5pCU
By Julie French for the Mail Tribune (Oregon)
April 05, 2008
ASHLAND — The cheapest gallon of gas in town is going for 25 cents — with a catch.
Gary Mallicoat, the owner of the Exit 14 Shell station off of Interstate 5, is offering one gallon of gas in exchange for quarters dated 1964 or before. He is also accepting dimes, half dollars and dollar coins.
He ran the same special as the owner of the Major Quality Discount station in Ashland in 1976, when gas prices jumped higher than $1 for the first time during the oil embargo.
He still has the original Ashland Daily Tidings news clipping from that first promotion.
"It was sitting on the wall, and I said, 'Gosh, we ought to do that again,' " he said.
In the two weeks he has been running the deal, Mallicoat has collected $40 in quarters.
"Right now, this is a better deal than the coin shops," he said.
The value of pre-1965 silver coins is hovering around $3, depending on the coin, according to Mike Drager, owner of Ashland Money and Metals.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/NEWS/804050306
Anyone remember 25¢ gasoline?
Arthur Clarke, Benoit Mandelbrot, Stephen Hawking ~ Fractals
from: http://www.checkbiotech.org/
March 28, 2008
Romania set to ban approved GM corn crop
By Andrew Bounds and Thomas Escritt
Romania intends to join six other European Union members in banning the only genetically modified crop approved for use in the bloc, its environment minister said on Thursday, in a fresh blow to the biotechnology industry.
Attila Korodi called for a moratorium on planting MON810, a corn produced by Monsanto, the US company, and said his country’s bio-security committee would start examining the possibility of a ban on April 15.
Romania, a major agricultural producer, was a big grower of GM crops before it joined the EU last year.
Mr Korodi told the Financial Times a ban was likely as the committee would examine studies used by Hungary and France to justify their recent prohibition of MON810 because of its negative impact on the environment.
“If they say they have concerns, then we will ask the European Commission for a temporary ban,” he said. “We simply don’t know what its environmental impact will be.”
Italy, Austria, Greece and Poland have also banned the insect-resistant corn, claiming that the toxin it contains could be harmful to other wildlife. However, the Commission, which regulates the market, has yet to sanction their bans.
Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner, has asked the European Food Safety Authority for an expert evaluation of MON810 and recommended that two similar products not be allowed on to the market because of environmental concerns.
Polls have shown most Romanians do not want to eat GM food, in tune with public attitudes in most EU countries.
Greenpeace, the environmental group, welcomed the news. “The Romanian people overwhelmingly reject this unsafe, unnecessary and unsustainable technology. It is vital the ban is in place as soon as possible, so natural crops can be safe from GM contamination before the sowing season starts,” said Gabriel Paun of Greenpeace Romania.
Europabio, which represents biotech companies, said the concerns were baseless and the bans would hurt farmers.
“The specific biotech maize has also been the subject of thorough scientific reviews by scientific communities around the world and has received positive approvals by the world’s most robust approval systems, as well as EFSA,” it said in a statement.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Source: The Financial Times
(Let us not forget that racemic mixtures of thalidomide received "positive approvals", too.)
March 20, 2008
Mexico approves rules to begin planting GM corn
By Mica Rosenberg
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, said on Wednesday it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some farmers who question their safety.
The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico's Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.
Supporters of GMO foods, whose DNA is altered to be resistant to pests, say they are a way to boost world food supplies. But farmers in Mexico's rural south, where corn has been grown for thousands of years, worry GM corn will cross-pollinate with native species and alter their genetic content.
Under the new rules, the farmers who want to plant GMO crops must register with the agriculture ministry and environmental authorities to request a permit.
GMO corn seeds will not be allowed into certain parts of the country that are determined to be "centers of origin" for genetically unique corn strains found only in Mexico.
Bio-tech food producer Monsanto Co welcomed the decision in a statement, although the company noted that "the passage of these rules does not mean that permission will automatically be granted" to plant GMO crops.
Some farmers decried the decision.
"This is a step in the government's intention to bow to pressure from Monsanto to allow the contamination of Mexico's native corn," said Victor Suarez, who leads a group of small farmers opposing GMO crops.
Corn was first planted in Mexico as some 9,000 years ago and the country is now home to more than 10,000 varieties. The grain was adopted by Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s and eventually spread to the rest of the world.
On Jan 1 Mexico, the United States and Canada lifted all corn tariffs under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico now imports between 8 million and 9 million tonnes of U.S. yellow corn a year, close to 35 percent of local consumption.
More than 70 percent of U.S. corn is genetically modified.
With U.S. corn prices hitting record highs near $6 a bushel on increased demand for corn-based ethanol, corn farmers in the north say GMOs will help Mexicans cut down on expensive U.S. imports by producing more at home.
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Source: Reuters
(Complex organisms are in their genetics more "delicate" than simple ones. If the insects die from (or refuse to eat) something, maybe you should take that as a warning.)
NEW YORK - A federal appeals court has rejected a law requiring airlines to provide food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers trapped in a plane delayed on the ground.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that New York's new state law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier. It was the first law in the nation of its kind.
The appeals court said the new law was laudable but only the federal government has the authority to enact such a regulation.
The law was challenged before the appeals court by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines. - AP Wire story
, but wow. Just ... wow. I observed the value of the advice of pundits, "experts", and gov't off(ici)als many years ago ....
Here is a current example of such advice. Now you know why they run those disclaimers at the beginning of these types of shows... because they are for entertainment purposes only. Don Harrold gives a more detailed take on how JPMorgan got that sweet deal, while Bear Stearns' shareholders got ... um ... shafted. Perhaps when enough people live in places like this, it will be realized that us "tin-foil hats" who warned about things like this knew what we were talking about... then again, it's more likely some ethnic group will be made the target of misplaced anger. Let's not forget the sick and elderly, who will become "burdens" in the "new economy" ...
This says (roughly): 60,000 Reichsmark is what this person with genetic defects costs the community during his lifetime. Fellow German, that's your money too …"
Now, excuse me, I have to go look for a quote by that America-hating kook Thomas Jefferson; some nonsense about central banks, standing armies, inflation, and waking up homeless.
