Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Sarah Palin Is Stupid And Other Odds And Ends

That Sarah Palin. She sure is dumb, isn't she? Look what that Alaskan dingbat has gone and done now.
On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.

But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.
That's pretty typical for her. What a moron!

The German Court Rules That German Banks Can Be Saved With Printed Money

It turns out that in Germany, it's constitutional to keep the populace from rioting in the streets in reaction to nationwide bank runs by having the ECB print money.
In a historically significant signal for the euro rescue, the German Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled there are no grounds to stop the country from ratifying the European Stability Mechanism, the permanent euro bailout fund, and the fiscal pact aimed at bringing economic governance to countries in the euro zone. The decision bolstered stock markets in Europe and around the world and also strengthened the euro.
I'll bet that was a tough decision. They probably made it the night before as they left the court and noted that their BMWs and Audis were still in the court parking lot, unburnt and rampaging mobs were nowhere in  sight. Given that German banks hold mountains of Spanish and Italian paper, it's no wonder that the German Constitution had provisions for printing money until the bearings on the ECB's presses melt down. Why it took so long to come to this conclusion is still a bit of a mystery as Section 8, Clause 12 clearly states: Mehr Geld drucken, ihr Narren! Beeilen!

Bankrupt Multiculturalists Discover That Court Actions Are More Expensive Than Fighting Piracy With Guns

Staying in Germany, I guess if you're going to go to the trouble of printing 100 billion Euros, a few tens of millions more isn't that big of a deal, particularly when it allows you to feed your progressive street cred with some compassion to Somali pirates.
This week marks the 100th day of the Somali piracy trial in Hamburg, a case of the Federal Republic of Germany versus 10 Somalis who hijacked the German freighter cargo ship MV Taipan in the Indian Ocean in April 2010, armed with AK-47s....

Four judges, four lay judges, two prosecutors, 10 other court employees, 20 defense attorneys and three Somali language interpreters -- along with numerous expert witnesses on subjects including conditions in war-torn Somalia, the estimation of age through carpal bone analysis, bullet holes and the Urdu language -- have jointly managed to bring to light no more than what was known from the start -- after all, the 10 defendants were caught red-handed by Dutch marines who stormed the ship...

The price tag of this trial -- around €35,000 for each day the court is in session -- only serves to prove that the trial itself is a legal luxury. Including all associated costs, this nonsense trial could end up devouring between €7 million and €10 million -- a sum equal to more than half the annual budget of the United Nations' anti-piracy program.
On the plus side, if you held two such trials and paid for it by closing down the U.N.'s anti-piracy program, you'd show how progressive you were at the same time as you saved future money. After all, with no more anti-piracy efforts, no more pirates would be captured so no more trials would be necessary. Consider it an investment in court time "infrastructure".

Forward!

2 comments:

Jedi Master Ivyan said...

Eh, let 'em keep printing Euros. Then Mr Ivyan and I can come home from our year in Germany with a lovely example of their engineering on the cheap. I wonder what Audi has in the way of crossovers...

K T Cat said...

I keep wishing we'd traveled to Italy this year instead of last!