Link Low Down

The Dutch win 3-2 over Uruguay today to move on to the World Cup Finals. That's the good news. I wish I were in Amsterdam, but then, I always do.

The BP/Government Police State (Salon) I mentioned a while back that I was disturbed by the apparent collusion between state and local law enforcement and BP. My illusions about who the police actually 'protect' and 'serve' have long since been dispelled, of course, but I still have this feeble belief: state agents should not be acting as rent-a-cops for any corporation at any time. Of course the Professional Bootlickers Association that calls itself 'the media' are being ever so cooperative with the limitations imposed by BP. I bet they've convinced themselves that actually reporting about the death of an entire ecosystem would just cause people to unnecessarily panic, so they're actually doing a good thing by ignoring it. Also, Lindsay Lohan got sentenced today, so they're, like, really busy.

Yves Smith and Rob Parenteau have an interesting article about the miserly behavior of corporations and how it's impacting the economy. In brief: corporations acting only with regard to short-term profits = long-term shit for everyone else. On a similar note, a wrist-slitting article in the New York Times about the totally abysmal employment rates of the Millenials, or whatever lame-ass name this generation has been tagged with of late. (Myself, I like to call the children of Boomers the Echoes: just a hollow refrain.)

Then there's this guy, who has studied some fractals and determined that the market is due for its biggest downswing since we were all trading chickens and butter. He thinks that the Dow will go as low as 1000. In which case, let's hope that we all invested in actual chickens and actual butter (and actual guns), because otherwise the Mormons will be the only ones who survive.

This is why I am really uninterested in adulthood (or at least, this is one of my many rationalizations for refusing to grow up). If we make it past 2012, I'll see what I can do about Being Responsible and Taking Things Seriously.