Most Interesting Thing You've Read This Past Week

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Howdy! Welcome to the our weekly open thread on interesting reads! This is where to post links to those great things that made you say "Ah!" when you read them, so the rest of us can read them too!

So what is the most interesting thing you've read in the past week?

It can be anything - a book, a news article, a blog post, a recipe, a cartoon, anything goes...

And please - if there's a link, link it; if it's a recipe post it. :D

 

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I have several, all along a similar line...

poligirl's picture

and you've probably read at least one of them, but they are all worth reading"

Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?

How America’s toxic culture breeds mass murder

I am Adam Lanza’s Mother

Four Ways to Stop Gun Violence

and one more from the Onion, so a bit on the well, maybe not lighter, but sort of lighter side:

Fuck Everything, Nation Reports

Just Fuck It All To Hell

 

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I hate to say it, but nothing good.

Glinda's picture

The latest is the story Obama is going to agree to the chained CPI.

In addition, the republicans are trying to manipulate the swing states so that the states as a whole don't vote with one voice in the Electoral College -- that all the districts in the swing states vote in the Electoral College based on what candidate won in the district -- um, ya know, the districts that the republicans gerrymandered in the Democratic states.

And then there is the unspeakable that is impossible to get over even though I know no one involved.

And that just tops the lists.

I know I'm a downer, I'm sorry.  But I'm still in a bad mindset and the top two stories I mentioned only added to it.

 

 

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most interesting thing I've read: Retaliatory Ban of US Adoption

sartoris's picture

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/retaliatory-ban-of-us-adoptions-proposed/473237.html

Reading foreign news actually helps keep one informed.  So, on Monday Obama signed the Magnitsky Act that implements a lot of changes in U.S.-Russian relations.  The Russians are trying to retaliate by banning the adoption of Russian orphans to U.S. citizens.  That's awful, right?  However, in the article I learned that the Russians fear the U.S. food additive ractapamine, which is found in approximately 60-80 percent of US pork and beef.  What's it do?  Well, it acts as Meth for animals.  Check out this Purdue University paper (

http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/swine/swineday/sday02/19.pdf) which lists two of the ingredients responsible for causing the increase in the animal's metabolism: "This increase in epinephrine and norepinephrine could be responsible for the increase in heart rates and activity of the pigs fed ractopamine."

 For more information on ractapamine check out this article from the Chicago Tribune:http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-10/news/sns-rt-usa-russiabeef-factboxl1e8na47r-20121210_1_pork-and-beef-ractopamine-beef-imports

Now you know why I read the foreign papers.  You ever heard of this?  I sure never saw it covered by the US press. 

 

 

 

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Here's one interesting story - The Fiscal Cliff is a Diversion

traveler's picture

This is probably not a surprise to most.

Paul Craig Roberts writes about The Derivatives Tsunami and the Dollar Bubble - 17 December 2012.

He calls it a hoax designed to divert public opinion from huge problems to small ones, that the spending cuts and tax increases will reduce the deficit by an insignificant amount over the ten year period.

Prior to financial deregulation, essentially the repeal of the
Glass-Steagall Act and the non-regulation of derivatives--a joint
achievement of the Clinton administration and the Republican
Party--Chase, Bank of America, and Citibank were commercial banks that
took depositors’ deposits and made loans to businesses and consumers and purchased Treasury bonds with any extra reserves.

 

With the repeal of Glass-Steagall these honest commercial banks became
gambling casinos, like the investment bank, Goldman Sachs, betting not
only their own money but also depositors money on uncovered bets on
interest rates, currency exchange rates, mortgages, and prices of
commodities and equities.

These bets soon exceeded many times not only US GDP but world GDP.
Indeed, the gambling bets of JP Morgan Chase Bank alone are equal to
world Gross Domestic Product.

Roberts writes that four US banks have derivative exposure equal to 3.3 times world Gross Domestic Product and that the entire economic policy of the United States is dedicated to saving four banks that are too large to fail. The banks are too large to fail only because deregulation permitted financial concentration, as if the Anti-Trust Act did not exist.

Read the rest of the article at the link above. It can also be found here.

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