Let's Take a Break ...

... in observance of Maundy Thursday. John 13, verses 1 - 17:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter." Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean." So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

And then, John 15, verses 10 - 17:

"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another."

Watch That Edge, Now ...

Anybody else have that edge-of-the-cliff feeling?

BBC business editor Robert Peston said Bear Stearns had been taken to the brink of insolvency over the past 24 hours by a sudden collapse in confidence on the part of its hedge fund clients.

As a result, these funds rushed to withdraw their assets.

"The rescue of Bear Stearns demonstrates that the worst of the global credit crunch is not yet behind us," he said.

He says that if Bear Stearns had been allowed to collapse, it could have put the whole financial system at risk.

Paul Craig Roberts is feeling it:

Today the US, heavily dependent on imports, is subject to double-barrel inflation from both domestic money creation and decline in the dollar’s foreign exchange value.

The US inflation rate is about twice as high as the government’s inflation measures report. In order to hold down Social Security payments, the government changed the way it measures inflation. In the old measure, inflation measured the nominal cost of a defined standard of living. If the price of steak rose, up went the inflation rate. Today if the price of steak rises, the government assumes that people switch to hamburger. Inflation doesn’t go up. Instead, the standard of living it measures goes down.

The Primate-in-Chief, on the other hand, says everything's just fine:

President George W. Bush, seeking to bolster faith in the economy amid fears of a recession, acknowledged on Friday the United States was going through hard times but said growth would resume over the long run because economic fundamentals were sound.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton countered that much of the country was already in a recession.

With oil prices at record highs, the mortgage market on the verge of meltdown and the specter of recession looming, Bush has been scrambling to halt the slide in the economy.

"In the long run I am confident that our economy will continue to grow because the foundation is solid," Bush told about 500 people at the nonpartisan Economic Club of New York, a group of top business executives, bankers and economists.

I wonder: what is this solid foundation to which El Supremo refers? The amazing productivity of the American mercenary soldier? The production of Super Bowl advertising? The explosive proliferation penis-stiffening prescription drugs? The vigorous rate of construction of two-thirds-vacant suburban strip malls? Yes, yes, a solid foundation indeed.

We now return you to our nonstop coverage of the exchange of pleasantries between Geraldine Ferraro and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Two Cheers For the New Money

We have the "new nickel" ...










and the new dollar coins ...














and now ... the new $5 bill.








And it's all good with me. It's a limited sort of truth-in-advertising. I mean, if it's going to be worth about as much as Monopoly money, it might as well look like Monopoly money.














Anybody want to buy Virginia Avenue?

A Quick Stroll Down Memory Lane

Remember when the Soviet Empire was perpetually strapped for what were referred to as "hard currencies?" Remember when "hard currency" prominently meant the U.S. dollar?

Those were the days ...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Oil prices topped $109 a barrel for the first time Tuesday as investors sought refuge from the anemic dollar.

Speculation that rising prices for oil and other commodities will offset the falling dollar has driven oil up from $87 a barrel in January. Oil's latest rise came as the International Energy Agency said crude prices will likely be underpinned by brisk demand in China and other emerging markets.

Look, I know my fellow Americans don't care much about wogs' lives. When it comes right down to it, my fellow Americans don't care much about their fellow Americans' lives, either, unless they happen to be blood relatives or close friends. But maybe, just maybe, as gas heads for the $4 mark and real incomes continue to drop, Americans might have a passing thought or two about all the dollars -- borrowed from Asian bankers -- that have been flushed down the Empire's murderous overseas ratholes.

Or maybe not. Just as it's treasonous to wonder whether Imperial foreign policy is related to "why they hate us," I'm sure that any possible connection between that policy and "why they're not too crazy about our wastepaper currency, either" will also be quite unthinkable.

Spring Forward ...

As I was leaving the Y this morning, a few minutes before seven, I saw that the sky was sort of a deep blue color rather than the usual black. There was obvious danger that the Yellow Face ("it burns us, Preciousssss!") might soon be in sight. Well, Sunday's return to BDDST (Bitch Daniels Daylight Stupidity Time) will protect me from that ... I can go on being a morning cave-dwelling blind fish for the rest of the year.

Here, Your Worshipfulness Governor D., let me show you to your very own spot against the Wall. Care for a blindfold, Your Semi-Adequacy? No? Well, then, just watch those nice men over there who are pointing those long tubes at you, and wait for your surprise ...

Monsters Among Us

So, is Sen. Clinton really a "monster?" Former Obama adviser Samantha Power apparently thinks so, but I think maybe she's being unfair. It all depends on context, you see. In a group of normal, non-criminal, working Americanos, obviously she's a monster: willing and eager to rob her fellow citizens and kill many swarthy foreigners "from day one," as she likes to say of herself. But, as a "viable" candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2008, her monstrous tendencies totally fail to distinguish her from the rest of the Crowd of Three. They are all pretty horrible.