No Rave, Just Rant, Rant, Rant

Today I hate my job more than yesterday. It really is surprising that just when you think you hate something as much as humanly possible, there’s always room for more.

So, in honor of my shit mood I am going to make a list of everything that pisses me off. Join me. Get mad. Here, in order from mild to severe in terms of crimes against humanity:

Ok, I have already shit on the New York Post. Why do I let it piss me off so much? I don’t know. Everyone knows its just a terrible paper. So is it even worth pointing out just how horrible it is? Probably not. But it really gets under my skin. People read this. LOTS of people. Sure the cheesy free papers they hand out in the subway have probably taken out a chunk of their readership (since it too is written at a 4th grade reading level). But you still see a lot of people on the subway reading it. This is a newspaper that when there was a rash of suicides at NYU last year, put a picture of a girl who had just jumped off a building (and was the 4th or 5th student to do so) ON THE COVER. I don’t know how they got this picture. I don’t know who had a camera and happened to be looking up the minute this girl decided to kill herself, but there it was, this little girl flying through the air. It was beyond tasteless. In true Unabomber form, I, of course, wrote them a stern letter. Then two days ago, they write a story about the poor Ebersol family. You know the NBC Sports Chief whose plane went down and he and one of his sons survived? It’s a dreadful story. I mean just horrible. The son who died, Edward Ebersol, was missing for at least a day. The post reported on the finding of his body with this considerate and tasteful title for their article: ”NBC JET KID DEAD”. WHAT? We are talking about a fourteen year old kid here who was just found UNDERNEATH a plane! And they call him NBC JET KID? How about, “Ebersol Family Grieves”, or even just “Edward Ebersol Found Dead”? I mean, that’s not even a super sensitive one, but its factual. The news isn’t pretty, and I’m not asking for anyone to sugarcoat anything to make us all feel better. That’s for you shrink, your mom, and Oprah to do. Love Oprah and her fluff, but there’s a reason she’s not in the news business. So don’t think I cant handle it. But when a fourteen year old boy dies, please tell me that there is a better headline to print with the story than that. Again, pointless crusade- this one I have against the Post. But it makes me mad. And so I tell you about it. Here’s the article:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302004/news/nationalnews/35493.htm


Another thing that pissed me off today was an Op-Ed piece in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman called “9/11 Bubble”. Read it. Its good. Or just read these snippets:

“In my lifetime we will have gone from the Greatest Generation to the Profligate Generation to the Bankrupt Generation. Yes, I'm talking to you 20-year-olds. President Bush has called for sacrifice - but not by his generation. He's passing the bill onto your generation.

“The very reason Mr. Bush had the luxury of launching a war of necessity in Afghanistan and a war of choice in Iraq, without a second thought, was because of the surpluses built up by the previous administration and Congress. Since then, the Bush team has been slashing taxes in the middle of two wars, weakening the dollar and amassing a huge debt burden - on the implicit assumption that nothing will go wrong in the future.
But what if there is another 9/11 or war of necessity? We're cooked. The tax revenue won't be there, so the only option will be more borrowing and a weaker dollar. But what happens if the Chinese and other foreigners, who now hold over 40 percent of our Treasury securities, decide they don't want to hold these depreciating dollars anymore, let alone buy more?
It is now clear to me that we have followed the dot-com bubble with the 9/11 bubble. Both bubbles made us stupid. The first was financed by reckless investors, and the second by a reckless administration and Congress. In the first case, the public was misled by Wall Street stock analysts, who told them the old rules didn't apply - that elephants can fly. In the second case, the public was misled by White House economists, peddling similar nonsense. The first ended in tears, and so will the second. Because, as the dot-com bubble proved, elephants can fly - "provided it is not very long."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/02/opinion/02friedman.html?hp

Please President Bush, surprise us. Lets get rid of Treasury Secretary John Snow, who, according to the Washington Post, is being pushed out anyway… and let’s appoint someone who, oh I don’t know, may try to restore some sense of fiscal responsibility. I personally would do it cause its fun to prove everyone wrong. Come on, I dare you.



For the last and most heinous crime against humanity (and the only REAL crime against humanity on my list) that I have been thinking about today… I was going to add the 20th Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas tragedy… but I will do that tomorrow since the anniversary is actually tomorrow. Well, actually it was 5 minutes past midnight, so I am not sure when is appropriate…. But we’re talking about it tomorrow. Here’s a fun fact in the meantime:

Union Carbide and eight other companies paid US $ 4.2 billion as potential damages for Silicone Breast Implants to 650,000 claimants. This amount was 9 times more than what the Bhopal victims were given. With global assests of US $ 5 billion, the company would have gone bankrupt if it had to pay damages according to US laws. A quick look at the Indian Railways schedule for compensation (Death Rs.2,00,000 and a minimum of 40,000 for bodily injury), sharply contradicts Union Carbide's claims that the compensation was "more than generous by Indian standards. "
We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. Its really horrible. Corporations and corrupt governments suck. I know. Such a juvenile declaration. I may not shower for a while and become a hippie now. Fuck the Man.