Credit Card Fraud

The wonderful thing abut the stock market is that it is amoral, capitalism itself is amoral. Clearly with such little concern about the criminal behaviour of the big Credit Card companies, the stock market should be willing to put IPO's out for Bolivian Coca or Afghanistan Opium cooperatives. Then those two economic basket cases would at least be able to gain enough capital to reconstruct their economies.

Visa and MasterCard are part of the Banking cartels, they are in fact agents of the banks, much like the ATM service programs, Cirrus and Interac.

Interesting that banking/credit card fraud is considered a less henious crime than say oh I don't know, shoplifting, or robbery, or selling drugs on the street for the third time.

And the reason that Visa and Mastercard are facing legal suits? Why it's a simple thing called MONOPOLY.

As Americans go into Debt, and Canadians as well, Mastercard and Visa have reaped record profits off the go-go casino economy that is America.

Nothing productive here, just Money chasing Capital chasing Money; M-C-M. Housing Bubble, Debt Boom

Which is why America is now the worlds largest debtor.Storm Clouds Over The US Economy

Merchants Hit MasterCard IPO on Anticompetitive Grounds

A law firm co-leading the merchant class-action interchange lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and a number of their large members yesterday filed a supplemental complaint in federal court asserting that MasterCard’s imminent initial public offering of stock is an attempt to shield itself from antitrust liability for past interchange practices. But if or how the revised complaint will affect the planned IPO that could come as soon as Thursday and raise up to $2.8 billion is unclear.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - MasterCard is expected to hit the market with a bang when it makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange as early as next week.

But there may be reason for long-term investors to whimper.

Investors big and small are expected to gobble up shares of the credit card association, which has a long history of stable performance. But the company's future appears less certain.

MasterCard faces mounting lawsuits, and long-term investors could end up footing the company's legal bills, analysts said.

Investors in the IPO market like to see growth, and while MasterCard is a well established company, its business has benefited as consumers move from paper to electronic payments. The total value of transactions on MasterCard-branded cards - including purchases and cash advances - rose 13 percent last year to $1.7 trillion, according to company estimates.

MasterCard has booked about $860 million in expenses related to legal settlements over the last three fiscal years. It settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of merchants in 2003 but a number of cases remain outstanding, including separate suits filed by Morgan Stanley's (Research) Discover and American Express alleging the credit card association competes unfairly.

Also See:

Bank Charges

Contracting Out Faux Pas

Money Money Money

BANKS



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Two Super Powers

There are now two super powers in the World. As the latest Amnesty report reveals.

Rights report condemns US, China

When the powerful are too arrogant to review and reassess their strategies, the heaviest price is paid by the poor and powerless.

-- Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan

American hegemony was challenged last month when their rentier landlord came to visit them. Chinese Prime Minister Hu first stopped in Washington, not Washington D.C. but the State of Washington to buy a few planes from Boeing, and have an official State Dinner with the real power in Amerika, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. On his way to Europe he stopped in to visit President Bush shake some hands have a press conference, and ask about how America intended to pay its bills.

Did anyone care to notice that the Chinese president did not rush to see his US counterpart when he landed in the US? What did it say about China’s perspective on the Sino-US relationship that the first person that President Hu visited in the US was Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and the world’s richest man? No matter how rich Gates is, he is still a private citizen and one would surely imagine that the first person a visiting head of state and government visits before anyone else is his counterpart. With China It’s Simply Business, Not a Clash of Civilizations

In Washington the state, Hu beamed as he hobnobbed with the capitalist kings of computers, coffee shops and airplanes, who are among those making a mint in China's markets.

In Washington the city, Hu got a rather frostier reception. A dissident heckler startled him on the White House lawn, a White House announcer called his country the Republic of China - did someone say Taiwan? - and a senator warned that China should open more of its markets to American products, or else.

The chill in the East and the warmth in the West were, of course, mostly about money. The number most policy makers in Washington, D.C., think about when they think about China is the $202 billion trade deficit in 2005, up 25 percent from the year before. In Seattle, the focus is on the $5 billion that businesses in the state exported to China last year, up 64 percent from 2004. News Analysis: Hu sees 2 very different Washingtons

While America prides its power as Empire, it is no longer the only Superpower in the World. It no longer has hegemony. China has matched it.

China Befriends Oil-Rich Saudis; US Pays at Pump


Merkel's China visit to strengthen bilateral ties

China extends its reach into Africa with $1bn deal for Nigeria's railways

United States looks on as China mines Latin America's riches

As the American Empire spreads its military abroad, China keeps its at home. China too now is a hegemon. One that is playing in the world despite American protests.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - China's military buildup has altered Asia-Pacific power balances and could pose threats to other forces, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in an annual report that repeated U.S. calls for Beijing to explain its actions. China has retained its long-standing focus on rival Taiwan but years of double-digit growth in arms spending and new missiles, ships and aircraft meant it could project power further afield, the 2006 China Military Power Report said. "The pace and scope of China's military build-up already place regional military balances at risk," the 58-page report said. "Current trends in China's military modernization could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia -- well beyond Taiwan -- potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region," it said.

Take Sudan. Please. As the old joke goes. Sudan is a client state of China, they own the petro-industry there. So ask yourselves why of all the UN Security council members, China is the only one who has not offered military forces for Darfur. Nor have they used their economic and political power to force the Sudanese state to settle the Darfur issue. Is it because Darfur is one of the new oil finds in Sudan?UN presses Sudan to admit assessment team in Darfur (Roundup)

Before we send Canadian forces to Sudan, or even aid, we should ask why their largest client is doing nothing.

China should revise policies on Sudan

But the Sudanese, more than all world powers and economic entities, are the ones most directly affected by the political and economic policies of China on Sudan.

Apart from the nuclear power conflict in the Chinese-Iranian-Western relations, the unabated fears about the Gulf oil, and the other international agenda, what concerns us here is a Sudanese viewpoint on the reasons for the requested revisions on the Chinese policies on Sudan.

There are clear political concerns with the Chinese mechanical support of Sudan in the international arena, especially the United Nations Security Council, as well as major economic questions about the Chinese oil methodologies in South Sudan and other parts of the country.

Of particular importance is the way the revenues of these investments have been used by China to support the repressive rule of Sudan with virtually non-economic or social development projects in the oil-producing region, South Sudan, for almost a decade.

Recently, the Chinese working team on the construction of the Hamadab Dam at the Manasir/Robatab area in the Nile Province of North Sudan faced some forms of popular resistance from the local inhabitants who had been prevented from using the Nile drinking water for their animals by construction provisions imposed by the repressive rule of Sudan in agreement with the Chinese firm.

The Chinese company, however, went as far as inciting the authorities that responded promptly with armed forces to displace the inhabitants and their animals from the dam construction area.

This insensitivity to the local communities of North Sudan was an extension of graver indifferences by the Chinese investors towards many other communities in South Sudan.

Yep China is just like America, both share the arrogance of power. And China is not only Sudan's landlord, it's America's landlord too.

Also See:

China No Longer Red Nor In The Red

China Challenges US over Saudi Oil

US vs China for Global Hegemony

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Only As Pretty As You Feel

Jefferson Airplane Pretty As You Feel

when you wake up in the morning
rub some sleep from your eye
look inside your mirror
comb your hair

don't give vanity a second chance
no no no
beauty's only skin deep
it goes just so far 'cause
you're only pretty as you feel
you're only pretty as you feel inside
just as pretty as you feel

Roz Weston, a 31-year-old reporter with Global Television, shows off his painted toenails on the set of Entertainment Tonight Canada. ‘I find it relaxing,’ he says, and he never allows women to do it for him. (Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)

The Globe and Mail is behind the times again, see my Boys will be Girls

It appears that years after the fact they have discovered the Metrosexual.

Say didn't Jack Layton call himself that,yep he did.

Straight men eager to polish their image
Cosmetic companies find a fresh market catering to the male workaday dandy

Farid Hassani, a 37-year-old designer, says he regularly borrows his wife's eyeliner to give himself a lift.

"It makes me feel good, it makes me feel different," Mr. Hassani says.

"I'm not gay but I don't want to be perceived as the typical heterosexual male," he says.

"Makeup gives me an edge."

As well, this month, Jean Paul Gaultier, one of the pioneers of the male makeup trend, relaunched in select Sears and The Bay stores across Canada, its Tout Beau Tout Propre collection of eyeliner, bronzing powder and coloured lip balm for men.

Along with the clear nail polish that has been available to men since 2003, there is now a chocolate shade.

Actually the LCN Diamond Base gives nails a nice natural fleshy tone. Check it out with Chrissy from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Being the ultimate hockey twink does Sidney Crosby wear toe nail polish? Only his esthetician knows. Sid Crosby Metrosexual

And for the Goth camp in all of us there is always the Midnight Black. As proved by the young androgenous man who served me at MegaTunes in his eyeliner, foundation, lipstick and black nails displaying the subtlety of male drag in public.

In Ancient Egypt the Men were always better made up than the women.

And the Peacock looks better than the peahen.

And unlike Calgary we actually have a Mens Spa in Edmonton, The Boardroom

A tip o' the glitter blog to Calgary Grit

Also See: Bald Facts

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Dicks

Well tonight the Oilers will meet the Ducks in Edmonton. And BBQ Duck is one of the favorite items in Edmonton's China Town

After the Oilers roast the Ducks Whyte Trash Avenue will be swarming with drunk macho male yahoos encouraging women to 'show us your tits'.

An appropriate response would be 'shows us your dicks' but that would be redundant since all these drunk guys on the Avenue have already shown us they are Dicks.


Also See: Hockey




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Free Trade: Primitive Accumulation of Capital

I have said it before and will say it again, capitalism is merchants with private armies. The modern market state that is evolving under globalization is no different.

Seventeenth Century Origins of Free Trade

During the early modern period (1500-1700), there was intense conflict among European states. Chartered trade companies acted as warrior merchants, especially the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company. Armed trade was refined into a ruthless art by the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. At the same time, some kingdoms — for example, France and Spain — attempted to control their economies (Mercantilism) for strategic reasons. Moral philosophers, meanwhile, were critical of trade itself. Unlike Islam which was largely hospitable toward trade and merchants, Christian theology and Church edicts were hostile; they condemned commerce as abetting fraud, promoting avarice, and encouraging worldly gains. Theologians became more liberal as the centuries passed, but the status of merchants who merely traded goods and produced nothing was not high. At best there was theological ambivalence about commerce. Free trade did not have an easy birth in these circumstances.

Ironic ain't it that the very historical forces opposed to Free Trade are now it's greatest proponents. Of course that is because of the development of the ultimate Protestant State; the American Empire. While Europe remains dominated by Catholicism, even in its Anglican and Lutheran forms.

See my; LOOKING BACKWARDS
The Fraternal Origins of Working Class Organizations In the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism

As for Islam and Free Trade see my article Ibn Khaldun 14th Century Arab Libertarian

Instead of sabre rattling the Americans might want to use Free Trade, any trade in fact, with economically isolated Iran to get them to quit their sabre rattling.

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Dodge Ball

some economists believe the Bank of Canada may be habitually overestimating inflation because the central bank is focusing too much attention on traditional factors that cause prices to rise -- like a tight labour market and booming domestic demand -- and not enough on globalization and international competition.

Yep I have said it before the Bank of Canada is stuck in the Mulroney era. Leave well enough alone, David Dodge. But of course being a monetarist like he is he won't.Bank of Canada expected to raise interest rates which will result in;

Markets could be in for more losses in coming week

"That calls into question the Bank of Canada's own assertion that core inflation was going to be back at the two per cent threshold by the third quarter," said TD Securities chief strategist Marc Levesque. "It looks like the bank may have a bit more wiggle room on the inflation front, so I think this just adds to the likelihood that it could, in fact, choose to take a pass and do nothing." "Tame core inflation, a tight-as-a-drum labour market, healthy retail sales, a firm Canadian dollar, a red-hot economy in the west... what's a central bank to do?" asked Avery Shenfeld, senior economist with CIBC World Markets.

Leave well enough alone. Geez does it take an anarchist to tell the capitalists how the market works? Guess so.


More on Dodge

Also See

Loonie

Petro Dollar

Monopoly

Monopolies


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Silly Headlines

Human Remains Found in Quebec

I would hope so since humans have lived there for thousands of years.



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Harper Has Already Abandoned Kyoto

Which is why Rona Ambrose is on CTV Question Period,on Sunday and sitting on her duff in the House and not in Bonn.

And when asked why she isn't in Bonn, she replies like the trained parrot she is; "We want a made in the USA....errr...Canada policy."

Yeah more like a Made In Alberta policy.



Kyoto backslide sparks furor

Canada sabotaging Kyoto accord, environmentalists say

Canada wants Kyoto deal scrapped - reports


More On Kyoto


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Ping!

I use Pingomatic to hit multiple blog-readers. Lately it has been a bit funky but over all it when it works it saves you lots of time. And don't forget to Tag!
And if you have breaking news, its good to also post it to Indymedia.


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Just The Facts Ma'am

This is a follow up on my previous article;UN Report Says We Need A Living Wage

Just the facts ma'am.

The facts show that for the majority of women in Canada Day Care is NOT a matter of Choice it's a matter of NEED.

And this is true for single mothers who have no choice in whether to work or not. The myth of the two income family which allows for so called 'choices' of staying home, is a return to the era of Leave It To Beaver, and even then women worked outside the home.

Those who claim to speak for choice in staying home can only afford too because they live on two family incomes, both are professionals earning above average wages who can afford to have one parent stay home by defering their salary.

The attack on Day Care in Canada by the Harpocrite government is based on their base in Alberta's patriarchical religious right, who wanna keep the little woman at home barefoot and pregnant. And if she dares to not be married well she is after all a fallen woman and should get no support from society. She should be shunned.

Such is the real message in the Harpocrites Non Day Care policy.

Single mothers

550,000 – The estimated number of single-parent families headed by women in Canada in 2004.

$27,700 — The after tax income of lone-parent families headed by women in 2004.

Source: The Daily, Thursday, March 30, 2006, “Income of Canadians”.

38% — The proportion of families headed by lone-parent mothers that had incomes which fell below the after-tax low income cut-off (LICO) in 2003. In comparison, this was the case for 13% of male lone-parent families and just 7% of non-elderly two-parent families with children. The incidence of low income among lone-parent families headed by women has declined somewhat since the early 1980s, when the figure hovered around 50%.

68% — The percentage of female lone parents who were employed in 2004.

Source: The Daily, Tuesday, March 7, 2006, “Women in Canada”.

---

Working Mothers

65% — The percentage of all women with children under the age of three who were employed in 2004.

70% — The percentage of women whose youngest child was aged three to five who worked for pay in 2004.

Source: The Daily, Tuesday, March 7, 2006, “Women in Canada”.

54% — The proportion of children in Canada aged six months to five years who were in some form of child care in 2002-2003, up from 42% in 1994-1995. (From the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.)

Source: The Daily, Wednesday, April 5, 2006, “Child care: An eight-year profile”.

Boy babies less likely for single mothers

Women living with a male partner are more likely to give birth to boys than women who live alone, suggests a study of 86,000 US births. The finding hints that higher numbers of single mothers could explain a recent drop in the birth rate of boys in some developed countries.

Evolutionary theory suggests female animals can boost the chances of propagating their genes if they can control the gender of their offspring, depending on environmental conditions and the fitness of their mate.

Males are generally considered more costly to feed and raise than females. But, if fit, they can produce many offspring with many different females. But whereas an unfit female is still very likely to reproduce, an unfit male may never mate.

In humans, about 51% of babies are boys. But previous research has shown that women tend to have girls when food is scarce and boys when they are optimistic about their own futures. The effect of a committed partner on a child's sex has been unclear, however, with various theories making contradicting predictions.

Gender Inequality in Poverty in Affluent Nations: The Role of Single Motherhood and the State.

Poverty, as measured in this study, refers to whether the household one lives in has a total cash income below half of the median income of households in the individual's nation. Nations with high poverty for women also tend to have high poverty for men. The U.S. and Canada lead the way with the highest poverty rates for both men and women. The lowest poverty rates for both occur in Sweden and the Netherlands.


Single Mother Crisis in Canada

posted by: Ladan Affi (Friday, February 10, 2006)

The Somali Crisis in Canada:
The Single Mother Phenomenon

"The growing Somali community is considered to be one of the most disadvantaged among the visible and ethnic minorities In many cases, women fled Somalia with false passports and could only bring the number of children stated on these passports. The financial issue of the cost to bring the children to Canada was also used as a factor to decide which children to bring. The decision of who would depart and who would stay is a most difficult one since there are mother who leave young children behind in the hopes of sponsoring them, once they become permanent residents. This process however, on average, takes over one year and sometimes longer.

Third, the rate of divorce among Somali couples is incredibly high. The confilicts which arise are mainly due to the redefinition of traditional cultural roles between women and men and the stress of trying to cope in a foreign country. For example, women raise a family without the help of their husbands, yet it is the men who expect to be treated with respect and exert authority as heads of households as they once had in Somalia. These men are expecting to be obeyed without contributing very much to the well-being of the family.

In Somalia, men did not help their wives with household chores and caring for their children because there are many relatives helping them instead. In Canada, however, this kind of support from relatives does not exist, yet Somali men fail to understand that.

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UN Report Says We Need A Living Wage

Canada failing to care for poor, disadvantaged: UN report

Yep ever since 1995, when Paul Martin became Finance Minister and Ralph Klein kicked off his phoney war on the debt and deficit on the backs of the poor, unions and public sector workers.

The UN committee's findings are particularly harsh in regards to cuts made under the previous Liberal government to federal transfer payments earmarked for social services. The report suggests the cuts have had a serious impact on the standard of living of many of the country's minority groups. UN committee delivers harsh appraisal of Canada's social services

But it saved its harshest critique for how the Liberals, and now the Harpocrites, use EI to fund their surplus while denying Canadians basic economic rights. UN report criticizes Canada's EI program

While those who are optimists will focus on the fact that the committee reports;
Despite Canada's economic prosperity, the report says, roughly 11.2 per cent of the population lived in poverty in 2004. That is a drop from 13.7 per cent in 1998.

They will say we are doing better, when we still have over ten percent of the population living in poverty, many of those are women; as single mothers and seniors. Which is why we need a Social Wage.



Also see:

Living Wage articles




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Harpers Billion Dollar Blunder

The Liberals blundered over the helicopter purchase by the Mulroney government, which the Chretien Liberals made an election promise to renege on. They did. Costing us billions in the lost contract and then billions more in replacing the helicopters.

Now the Harpocrite government has done the same thing with the canceling the Liberal Governments Environmental programs. One of their five priorities.

Ironic ain't it.

Tech firms see red in Tory pullout

Canada is paying a huge price in lost investment and business development because of Ottawa's dithering over climate change, industry people say. In particular, we're missing opportunities in the burgeoning global trade in pollution credits — a system that played a big role in reducing acid rain and is now widely viewed as the best way to induce businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.The plan devised by the previous Liberal government, they say, was flawed and developing at a frustrating turtle speed. The new Conservative government has caused further delay by killing that plan without anything to put in its place."The do-nothing option is not free," says Len Eddy, president of AgCert Canada, the Edmonton-based Canadian branch of an international company that invests in emissions-cutting projects. "It's an extremely expensive option. "Analysts estimate the lost investment this year totals as much as $1 billion. It's gone forever, Eddy says.

Also See:

Kyoto

Harper

Rona Ambrose

Climate Change

Global Warming

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Harpers Ideal

Here is the result of law and order platforms embraced by the right, and what we can expect with the Harpocrite Government's new crime laws.

The US Prison Industrial Complex is growing by 1000 people a week thanks to, wait for it....the War on Drugs.

Something the Harpocrite has declared as part of his law and order policy for Canada. So this is what we have to look forward to.

The United States continues to have the highest prison population in the world, withe 1,000 inmates added to the nation's prisons each week from June 2004 to June 2005.

At mid-year 2005, jail facilities were operating at 95% capacity;

The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group, reports that the U.S. incarceration rate in 2004 was the highest in the world, at 724 per 100,000 population. Second was Russia, at 532 per 100,000.

'The data is clear: Drug use is driving up prison numbers throughout the region,' the state's corrections secretary Tim Reisch said in the news release. 'In South Dakota, we are directing our resources to address the issue head on.'

One American in 136 is in prison.


Imagine that more prisoners in the 'land of the Free' than in Russia. And both countries share something else in common, the disreputible use of Capital Punishment.



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Maxim Jail Time

No this is not a case of free speech it's a case of idenity theft and a violation of that most sacred of all American property; intellectual property. It is also just unintelligent, period.

Khushboo case: SC refuses to grant bail to Maxim editor

New Delhi, May 22: The Supreme Court today refused to grant anticipatory bail to Sunil Mehra, editor of the magazine Maxim, against whom a case has been registered for publishing indecent morphed photographs of Khushboo. The actress had sued the Indian edition of men’s magazine Maxim for a picture published in its inaugural January issue. She filed a defamation case along with criminal and obscenity charges against the British publishers as well as the editors of the Indian edition. The magazine morphed Khushboo’s face onto a woman clad in black lingerie, with the caption, ‘‘Of course I am a virgin if you don’t count from the behind’’ under it. Despite the fact that the fine print under the picture reads, ‘‘Women you will never see in Maxim’’ as well as ‘‘100% fake’’, the actor doesn’t see the humour. ‘‘I’m not an object. This incident has damaged me and the publishers must pay for the damage,’’ she said.

And she is not the only star complaining about Maxim ripping off their 'images' to use in their magazine.

Model Complains About Corbis Photo On Maxim Cover


May 18, 2006

By Daryl Lang

Model Veronica Varekova is publicly accusing Maxim magazine of using her image on its cover without her permission, though the magazine says it licensed the photo legitimately from Corbis. "They put me on the cover without my permission," Varekova told the Associated Press this week. "They have no right to do it." The photo of Varekova, topless and seen from the back, was shot by photographer Michael Williams for the British edition of GQ last year and licensed to the American edition of Maxim through Corbis Outline. Varekova's complaint draws light to the common practice of reusing photos shot for one magazine in another market. (It is also convenient publicity for Maxim's June issue, which hit newsstands today.)

As they say on Hawaii Five-O; Book 'Em Danno.

Clearly Maxim fails to follow the Playboy principle of paying its models, photographers, and authors, etc. Imagine that a principled Mens Magazine; Playboy NOT Maxim.


And no you will not find Sidney Crosby in Maxim.



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Anarchist Humour

I thought that this was a particularly funny comment in an pithy ironic sardonic anarchist fashion.

It shows that not all of us support the stupid twits in the Animal Liberation Front, as you can tell from my rants about the Seal Hunt.

And here is another case in point about animal research being useful. Yes I said that. Perfect Cure for Cancer Found In Mice

Which is why I don't subscribe to the ideology of the Green Anarchist.
While remaining a Social Ecologist.


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Carnival of Personal Finance

The Carnival of Personal Finance 49 is online now, and your humble scribe has a contribution in this issue.

To my critics who decry capitalist ads in a libertarian communist blog, ya have to know how capitalism works to critique it, and one thing it teaches is TANSTAAFL.
An anarchist taught me that.


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Sid Crosby Metrosexual

I came across this cheescake shot of Sidney Crosby at Jes Gőlbez hockey Rants

While it graced the pages of Vanity Fair poor Macho Jes thinks its eye candy for the girls.

Poor deluded fool, this is homoerotica if ever there was any. But then Jez does have a thing for Sid.

Oh right only straight men watch hockey. Yeah right, boys.

Vanity Fair is the very epitome of Metrosexual, unlike say oh, Maxim.



Is this a cheapshot against Jes?
Yep.
He hates the Oilers.





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Swedens Ugly Win

While all eyes were on the NHL games this weekend, it was the final round of the IIHF World Cup in Riga, Latvia. And Sweden defeated Canada on Saturday to go on and win their second Gold Medal, after winning against Team Canada at the Olympics.

This however was an ugly win, not worthy of the Swedes, and frankly a lousy call by the Refs. A major nasty cross check was put on Sidney Crosby, the young outstanding Canadian in the game, after he scored.

While assessed as a major penalty of five minutes, it should have been a major game misconduct worthy of losing a player for the rest of the game. It was an ugly cross check to Crosby's face knocking off his helmet , busting his nose and knocking him to the ice while he was celebrating his goal.

Sid's effort falls short

The game was comfortably in Sweden's control until Crosby was viciously cross checked in the jaw by Mika Hannula after scoring to make it 5-3 with 35 seconds to play in the second period.

He left the game feeling dizzy but had a breakaway 10 seconds after returning in the third period. Crosby then set up Patrice Bergeron's goal to get Canada within one and had a few chances to tie it.

It was a performance that left his teammates in awe.

"I think it said a lot to us the way Sid came out and played the third period because he was in rough shape during the second intermission," said captain Brendan Shanahan. "It says a lot to hockey fans and the people of Canada."

It was malicious and brutish. Something that one expects in the NHL but not in International Hockey. But then look where Sweden and the other Europeans play hockey, in the NHL.

As it was Crosby went on to score another goal, but it wasn't enough to win. That cheap shot, cheapened the game, and the Swedes win. What victory they gained in the Olympics is now tarnished, and their Gold Win in the World Cup was not won by gentlemen but by thugs.

Canada loses 5-4 to Sweden in semifinal

The game looked comfortably in Sweden's control until Crosby was viciously cross-checked in the jaw by Mika Hannula after scoring to make it 5-3 with 35 seconds to play in the second period.

The Canadian star had his arms in the air in celebration after poking his own rebound past Johan Holmqvist when Hannula ran him into the end boards. Crosby stayed down for a minute before being taken straight to the Canadian dressing room.

Hannula was assessed a five-minute major and given a game misconduct, but Canada only got a three-minute power play after a melee ensued.

"It was a blatant cross-check to the face," Canada coach Marc Habscheid said. "It's disappointing, especially when there's smiles and laughs on their bench. . . .

"He's a great player, I don't know what they were doing."

Crosby returned for the third period and broke in alone on Holmqvist just 10 seconds into the period, but was stopped by the Swedish goalie.

His revenge would still come. Crosby took control of the puck behind the goal while still on the power play and fed Bergeron, who one-timed it by Holmqvist at 3:38 to narrow the lead to 5-4.

As Canada pressed for the tying goal, the Swedes continued to test Crosby with late hits after the whistle. The teenager's temper was questioned a couple times during the NHL season, but he showed no signs of losing his cool here.

"I think it said a lot to us the way Sid came out and played the third period because he was in rough shape during the second intermission," Canadian captain Brendan Shanahan said. "It says a lot to hockey fans and the people of Canada who are still trying to figure him out."

In a lot of ways that game ended it for Canada, demoralized they could not win against Finland whom they played for the Bronze. The cheap shot on Crosby, and the continued attacks on Canada's Star Player shows that the age of Gretzky is over even in International Hockey, and the rough and tumble NHL rules, rule.

Pluck just not enough
`Drained' Canadians give their all but come up empty versus Finns
Olympic champion Swedes blank Czech Republic to win gold

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Montenegro By A Nose

`Victory' for Montenegro

Balkan state votes for independence, unofficial tally shows

Opponents of break with Serbia refuse to concede defeat

An unofficial count of all ballots by a referendum monitoring group gave Yes forces 55.5 per cent of the vote — slightly above the 55 per cent minimum set by the European Union for the sovereignty vote to be recognized.

I would say winning by .5 is a Pyrrhic victory And it resolves nothing leaving both sides now dangerously divided, and thus could increase the potential for politcal upheaval and instability in Montengro more than anything else. Reminding us once again of the dangers of independence by referendum.

Something Quebec also learned the hard way in 1995. And which the Federal Clarity Act will to little to correct.



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Anarchism A Google Trend

I looked up Anarchism on Googles new tool; Google Trends and found that Greek was the language used most often to look up Anarchism. No surprize there since Anarchy comes from Greek; Anarkos. Which may explain why Anarchy gets confused with Kaos sometimes, exactly Mr. Shmart.

English was second and Swedish third, yes there is a large Anarcho Syndicalist movement in Sweden. Proving my thesis that you need a strong social democratic movement and government to create a condition for a strong extra-parliamentary left opposition, the very ocean within which anarchism spreads.

New Zealand topped the list for regions where references to anarchism can be found. Canada I am pleased to say came ahead of the U.S. and U.K. in sixth place. Not to shabby.

When it came to cities Vancouver came second behind Dublin (which is home to the Platformist Anarchist movement) and ahead of Auckland. The US. West Coast was well repersented of course with Seattle, Portland and San Fransisco. Surprising London England home of Freedom Magazine was missing.

The four most popular articles since 2004 are;

	Teen Columnist: Music fat cats bastardizing punk rock, anarchism Tucson Citizen - Sep 7 2004
	Indigenism, Anarchism, and the State ZNet - Apr 29 2005
	The triumph of anarchism Hindu - Dec 10 2005
	Venezuela 2006: Anarchism against all odds Bay Area Indymedia - Mar 10 2006

Now compare that to Libertarian which is dominated by English language and American sites and you can see which is the real Internationalist movement.

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Macho Kinsella

Macho Warren Kinsella was in fine form the other day proving that not only is he a Zionist syncophant but he is sexist as well.

Calling Tor Star blogger Antonia Zerbias a 'screecher', the sort of epithat used for women, oh like Sheila Copps, because in his conspiracy adled brain he see's her focusing on the Asper media chain, of which the National Pest his employer is part of, because, gasp they are Jewish. Hence she must be...wait for it...an anti-semite.

This guy never gives up on the low blows and cheap shots, and seeing anti-semites everywhere. He is in a sense the mirror image of the fascists whom he opposes, they too see conspiracies everywhere.

Maybe she is criticising the Asper chain because they are a Media Monopoly, like their predecesor the notorious criminal and Dark Lord of Media; Conrad Black. Whom they replaced when they bought him out. Wait lets not criticize Lord Black, his wife is Jewish. Warren is Canada's other loonie.

Warren is so predictable, when it comes to anything to do with Israel. The illegal state that currently rules over occupied Palestine. And now he is defending the yellow journalism at the Pest, his employer, when they make false claims about Iran. Of course Warren like other Zionist apologists see a nuclear Iran as far scary than a nuclear Israel.

At present, Iran has little more than primitive gropings towards the technology needed for nuclear self-defence. Yet these are being presented as a casus belli by Bush, Blair, Chirac and Olmert, whose own states are armed with hundreds—in the American case, thousands—of nuclear weapons. Whining and cavilling over the small print of Vienna protocols, however warranted, is a futile pursuit for Iranian diplomacy. The country would do better to choose the right moment and simply withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Of all the anachronistic emperors in the world, it is the most brazenly naked. There is not a shred of justification for the oligopoly of the present nuclear powers, so hypocritical it does not dare even speak its name—Israel, with 200 nuclear bombs, is never mentioned. There will never be nuclear disarmament until it is broken. Tariq Ali: Mid-Point in the Middle East?


See:
Harper Says No Nukes For India

Iran

Asper

National Post

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You don't need a Weatherman to know.....

From this mornings weather prediction on the Weather Channel

TEMPERATURE	7°C	21°C	21°C	11°C
CONDITION	Mainly sunny	Chance of thunder- showers	Chance of thunder- showers	Cloudy periods
P.O.P.	0%	40%	40%	10%
WIND	S 10 km/h	SW 10 km/h	S 10 km/h	SE 10 km/h
HUMIDITY	100%	47%	49%	86%
We don't expect any precipitation from Sunday morning to Monday morning.

Oh really no precipitation. Wonder what they mean by Thunder Showers?!

As this clearly shows weather prestidigitation is neithier prescient nor empircal.

And as a science IT is in good keeping with astrology.

Proving you really don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.....





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