Saturday, May 13, 2006

Saturday Quickies

From the Independent:
The US dollar has lost about 6 per cent in trade-weighted terms and 8 per cent against the euro and sterling. Yesterday it came within a whisker of falling through the $1.30 barrier against the single European currency and $1.90 against the pound.
Dollar continues the fall I wrote about last year with worry. Gold, silver, and copper continue to rise, as does oil. The problem? The dollar is losing it's place as a reliable investment return. Investors are moving to other markets. That portends tough economic times ahead in the U.S., particularly as we attempt to finance our debt. Watch out...the war has other long term consequences in addition to fomenting further terrorism and lost lives.

Fox News' John Gibson says white Americans should breed more lest the country be overrun by brown Hispanic children. The bigot has grown bold enough to step forward and nakedly declare his prejudice. Let's take pledges to only breed with other races and only if we can use invitro fertilization and have our children raised by gay couples. That'll probably give Gibson the heart attack he so richly deserves.

Who says this is the post-ironic age? Not I and apparently not the New York Times as they report that the person who took over as special prosecutor of Bill Clinton after Kenneth Starr left is now accused of stalking a former companion. Clinton's crime was lying to a grand jury about an affair. Where does stalking fall in the levels of sin?

Via Bruce Schneier comes this story of being caught in the Constitution free TSA zone:
To sum up, if you run afoul of the nation's "national security" apparatus, you're completely on your own. There are no firm rules, no case law, no real appeals processes, no normal array of Constitutional rights, no lawyers to help, and generally none of the other things that we as American citizens expect to be able to fall back on when we've been (justly or unjustly) identified by the government as wrong-doers.

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