As far as I know, "private equity" firms are companies that restructure companies while borrowing cash to finance said company ... but leaving the company holding the bag on that dept. Should the company fall (now with even more debt and someone else steering the ship) the equity firm gets a big pay off while yet another company goes under.

Good luck with that. *rolls eyes*

Why is it that every dodgy study on marijuana comes from some scientists from the Netherlands or Finland??? Think about it, do you really think weed can have such a massive affect on a person, that we've only now discovered? Heck, every synthetic drug advertized on the TV has far weirder effects such as, ooooooh, death, and yet they aren't part of some press release. Sheesh.

So let me get this straight...

If I was a financier trading millions and billions, and under the current de-regulated playfield that is Wall Street, I wouldn't have to pay one red cent to trade worldwide all those mortgages, hedge funds, CIDS, etc., but should some mook in a garage try to sell his old junk ONLINE well FRELL HIM.

Capitalism my arse.

Well that's so Tuesday. Would you swallow? Funny that the AP came out with this story just yesterday...

AP Exclusive: Graph suggests Iran working on bomb
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-graph-suggests-iran-working-bomb

Isn't it great Iranians work in English?

Oh, my favourite part; "leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program ..." ROTFL! Geee, wonder who THAT could be?

Is the server up yet? *sigh*, I hate Tuesday maintenance.

Absolutely real. And you sir have a future in politics. lol ;p

When this story broke I immediately thought back to my days in the 80's playing D&D and the fear evangelical Christians had of the game. I even remember being chased, yes chased, out of a friends house by his crazed father. I'd no idea at the time but somehow there was a growing fear that D&D lead to devil worship. Or something. I do recall there were even news reports along this line.

So now, put into a political context, this fear has been reanimated by the Maine GOP to accuse their opponent of being 'not one of us' at best and an agent of evil at worst. WoW is the new D&D! Clever. Fits the GOP play-book, however, it didn't work. Rather like a lot of the GOP play-book isn't working anymore.

It's worth it to know that in the years since I'd discovered the source of the Christian fear of RPG games. The comics of one Jack Chick. Wonderfully illustrated but deeply paranoid, his comics are familiar to any fundamentalist church goer. The D&D issue can be found here...
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.ASP

Oh right, the second massive 400 page omnibus bill due to hit the floor soon. The sort of bill Prime Minister Harper himself used to complain was undemocratic when he was in opposition. What giant hypocrites conservatives are!

I noticed a pattern forming regarding the reporting of this story. One I've seen before. The young man who did this had, as stated by the sheriff on the scene yesterday, sang like a bird regarding his political views. As of late yesterday the media began to report that there were no statements by the shooter. Suddenly, we don't get to know his views and thus why he had committed wanton mass murder. Today, his online ramblings have been removed.

It is within the corporatist interest to censor violence that may have a causal connection to the rhetoric the corporations put out, namely the demonizing of anything 'Liberal'. After all, does anyone know what Timothy McVeigh thought when he blew innocent people in Oklahoma to bits? No, because the media didn't print that. They didn't even interview him or print any statements he made. The story always comes down to the same, lame, narrative... he was a quiet seemly normal guy. Like the guy who opened fire in Penn. on three police officers because Glenn Beck was telling him, at the time, Obama was going to take his guns away. The guy who shot a doctor on the steps of the doctors church because Bill O'Reilly called that doctor a murderer over and over for weeks. There are many other cases but the corporations don't report why these people do these things. We are left to mourn and to guess and wonder as too why.

As the Sheriff in Arizona wisely said about what inspired the young shooter; 'it might be free speech but there are consequences.'