Archive for category Cultural Issues
The Rich Make Majority of Strategic Mortgage Defaults
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Business and Money, Capitalism, Cultural Issues, Economics, Ethics, Health Insurance Industry, Morality, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on August 4th, 2010
So you think it’s all those ”immoral” people who got sub-prime mortgages on a house that they could not afford who are mailing the keys back to the bank?
WRONG!
Statistically speaking, it is the wealthiest people who are making “business decisions” to walk away from mortgages when what is owed on the loan is greater than the value of the house. And the rich are doing so at almost twice the rate of the sub-prime and owners of lower-cost homes, according to data compiled by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
In other words, sub-prime borrowers generally cannot make the payments, and involuntarily have to walk away; rich people can make the payments and voluntarily choose to walk away!
These are called “strategic mortgage defaults”, because the individuals do a complete cost/benefit analysis in order to determine if it makes financial sense to keep the home when it will likely never appreciate in value enough in the long run to pay for itself.
It’s not dissimilar to what health insurance companies do when denying coverage for that little bout of cancer your spouse is battling, or what BP did when deciding to take shortcuts while drilling on that rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Hey, it might cost them more in the long run, but they are willing to take that chance given that it will certainly save them money in the short-run. Thus giving them a better opportunity to make more money in the long run.
Amoral Capitalism. Risk/reward analysis. It’s just business, partner; you know, it’s all about ”the bottom line.”
Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist, said it best:
“The rich are different: they are more ruthless.”
Native Americans Cannot Return to America?
Posted by Lance Haley in Cultural Issues on July 13th, 2010
“All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced [back] to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.”
- Pat Paulsen (comedian, satirist and Presidential candidate 1968-1996)
So most White Americans oppose illegal immigration?
The Native American Indians really screwed up when they let the White Man set foot on their continent – and the rest, as they say, is history. Revisionist history, if you read the tidily scrubbed Anglo-Saxon school books. You know, Manifest Destiny, The White Man’s Burden, and all of those other inane Christian rationalizations for why it was God’s divine plan for the White Man to conquer North America, and take the continent away from Native Americans.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term “white washed”.
Now the Iroquois Indian Lacrosse Team – ranked fourth in the world – cannot even leave their own continent in order to compete in the sports World Championship tournament beginning this week. Why? Because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will not officially recognize the Iroquois Nation as a sovereign entity for purposes of carrying their own passports. When the U.S. State Department offered to secure expedited U.S. passports for these “foreigners”, they respectfully declined; as one spokesperson for the tribe said so poignantly:
“It would be like saying the Canadians are having travel difficulties and the U.S. says we’ll make you U.S. passports and you can go over.”
For now, the team is stuck in a bureaucratic limbo in New York City, while awaiting a decision on whether they will be “allowed back into the United States” – you know, that land we stole from their ancestors - upon their return from playing in the lacrosse tournament scheduled to commence tomorrow in England.
Can you imagine the outrage if Mexico started telling U.S. citizens that they would not officially recognize a U.S. passport when trying to leave Cancun? But they will give you a Mexican passport so you can continue on your way.
“This land is your land. This land is my land” . . .
Someone needs to strike one of those lines from Woody Gutherie’s lyrics.
When Human Laws Trump “God’s” Laws
Posted by Lance Haley in Catholic Church, Cultural Issues, Ethics, Legal & Justice, Morality, Pedophilia, Religion, Religion & Spirituality, Sex & Sexuality, Sexual Deviancy, The Pope on June 30th, 2010
GRIM REAPER TAKES VATICAN TO COURT
How in God’s name did The Vatican ever get sovereign status?
Oh, that’s right, they got it in God’s name.
Then on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court was silent on The Vatican claim that is was entitled to hide behind the shield of immunity, allowing a Federal Appellate Court’s ruling against the Church to stand. Finally, their day of legal reckoning is near at hand.
As we like to say here in America, “See you in court, Pope.”
Oh, and Hell is not too far behind.
Remember: Bring your own ice.
Bernie Madoff: “Fu@K My Victims”
Posted by Lance Haley in Business and Money, Capitalism, Cultural Issues, Ethics, Morality, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, financial industry on June 21st, 2010
”FUCK MY VICTIMS”
So after leaving thousands of trusting clients broke and devastated, Madoff adds insult to injury by telling a fellow inmate while incarcerated at the MCC [the New York city jail] that this crime was not all of his own making, and that he felt unfairly caught up in it.
He even went so far as to tell a prison consultant which he had hired that ”People kept throwing money at me. Some guy wanted to invest, and if I said no, the guy said, ‘What, I’m not good enough’?” Poor Bernie did not want to insult the guy – so he “Made Off” with his money.
But his final comment speaks volumes:
“ FUCK my victims. I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”
The Vatican is Damning It’s Pedophile Priests to Hell?
Posted by Lance Haley in Catholic Church, Cultural Issues, Legal & Justice, Morality, Pedophilia, Religion, Religion & Spirituality, Sex & Sexuality, The Pope on June 1st, 2010
VATICAN CITY - a monument to religious exploitation and corruption
The Vatican’s Prosecutor for Clerical Sex Abuse had the utter temerity to announce that it’s pedophile priests will suffer eternal damnation in Hell for their sins.
It’s time the Vatican look in the mirror, if they want to talk about eternal damnation. Besides, the Pope already vicariously damned humanity some ten years ago in his declaration titled DOMINUS IESUS. Does he not now possess the spiritual courage to turn his own judgment upon himself?
Any mea culpa (apology) forthcoming – and rumors have it that the Pope is preparing one - should best fall on deaf ears. It would be like O.J. Simpson admitting today that he murdered his wife. We can choose to forgive. But in situations like these, we should never forget who offered the apology; sociopathological humans are only interested in preserving their own well-being – most often to the detriment of all others.
Want further proof? Here is another Vatican document from 2000, that serves to underscore the hypocrisy of these men and their institution – the INTERVENTION BY THE HOLY SEE DELEGATION AT THE II CONFERENCE ON THE COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN.
It’s so pathetic, you are not sure whether to laugh or cry. Brace yourself. Here are some select quotes from that document:
“Children are by nature lovely, innocent, and trusting of adults, yet some of them are today increasingly robbed of their very childhood . . . [they] are never consenting sexual partners; they are always victims. The Convention on the Rights of the Child underlines this fact: the best interest of the child is always the key.” (So why did you bury these allegations on at least one occasion, stating that “the good of the universal church” was an important consideration - as in more important than the best interest of children)?
“Sexual abuse is evil, a criminal act, and punishable.” (So why didn’t you affirm this universally-accepted principle over the past fifty years, by ordering the clergy to immediately report any allegations of sexual abuse of children by your priests to legal authorities)?
“We must gather much more political will to combat these crimes against our weakest, and we must strengthen both international law, instruments of extradition and extra-territoriality.” (One must then conclude that Jeffrey Lena, the U.S. lawyer representing the Pope and The Vatican, has not been apprised of this position given that he has raised the doctrine of sovereign immunity as a defense against any and all legal liability in the matter of John V. Doe v. The Holy See)?
Once we see human beings as objects, once we forget that they have been created by God with an unalienable dignity, they can simply be used and abused. Sexual abuse of children is the logical extreme of such a view of the human being. (So after intentionally objectifying human beings for over one thousand years in furtherance of it’s agenda to wield spiritual power over mankind, and for its own financial gain, we should not be surprised that The Vatican’s tolereance of the sexual abuse of children by its own clergy was a “logical extension” of that view? That actually makes perfect sense in this context.)
“We must foster . . . ‘the reinforcement of positive cultural, religious and moral values and practices, which protect and promote the rights and the dignity of both girls and boys’.” (So where were those values and practices for the past one thousand years)?
Memo to the Pope and the Vatican: Some human beings have now expressly decided to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. In our quest, we have awakened to the understanding that it is high time for the viper to slither down from the apple tree, and crawl back under the rock from whence it came.
Metaphorically speaking, the Devil’s identity has been sufficiently revealed.
It’s time for you to go (back) to Hell . . . forever.
Sarah Palin As Seen Through the Prism of Alaskan Politics & Culture
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, Sarah Palin on May 19th, 2010
Sarah Palin is a political lightening rod in America. You either love her or disdain her.
Nevertheless, if you honestly want to know who Sarah Palin really is, read this commentary regarding Wally Hickel; a man who was deeply immersed in Alaskan and national politics for over 40 years; a man who as a previous two-term Alaska governor, initially supported Sarah Palin when she ran for the state’s highest office; a man who later lived to regret that decision.
Yesterday, Wally Hinkel’s life was celebrated on radios and televisions all across the State of Alaska, as he was publically layed to rest.
Palin lamely attempted to pay tribute to Hickel’s enormous public service, intentionally highlighting only his achievements that fit her own personal political agenda.
It was Wally Hickel who, metaphorically speaking, had the last word. He made one of his most powerful political statements in the last year before passing on; an opinion that ironically allows Wally to speak from beyond his grave, and a comment that says volumes about Sarah Palin:
“I don’t give a damn about her.”
-Wally Hickel 1919-2010
May he rest in peace.
Because many of us will not, so long as this fraud continues to cast her long, dark shadow over the American political landscape.
Another Conservative Family Values Guy Falls Victim to the Irresistable Lure of the Forbidden Fruit
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Humor, Morality, Politics, Religion, Religion & Spirituality, Republicans, Sex & Sexuality on May 18th, 2010
DA COOCHIE MONSTA
COOCHIE: a term referencing part of the female anatomy located anterior to the rectum and posterior to the lower abdomen, between the upper thighs. It is an opening, varying in size and appearance, that is commonly used for the sexual gratification of the male species; or in the case of the female species, when stimulated by small appendages, mechanically vibrating devices, certain vegetables, cigar holders, or other assorted cylindrical-shaped objects (Yes, I used a little poetic license in crafting part of this definition, for all you plagiarism detectives).
Another one bites the dust . . .
What is up with these Conservative Family Values guys? First, they go after President Bill Clinton in the 1990’s. Hey, Newt Gingrich - do you recall leading the charge, after dumping your cancer-ridden first wife for some young coochie, and just prior to dumping your second wife for another newer piece of coochie? Now days they just act contrite only AFTER they have been outed. Senators David Vitter and John Ensign, as well as Governor Mark Sanford all come to mind - and those are just a few of the more recent Republican Bible-thumping philanderers.
What is even more incredulous is the fact that today’s Conservative Family Values guy – Republican Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN) – recorded a video with his little coochie-girl, advocating abstinence. Oh yea, she was also on his Congressional Staff – obviously both literally and figuratively.
So what I gleen from all of this is that abstaining from abstinence and abstaining from marital fidelity are not morally equivalent for these guys? What great role models for our kids – eh, Sarah and Bristol Palin?
A few little nuggets of wisdom for all you moral hypocrites:
1) A man is just a human being with two heads and only enough blood to run one of them at a time;
2) There usually ain’t enough prayer in the world to resist the call of the sirens (“wild coochie”). Just ask Ulysses. Approximately 3000 years ago, this dude had himself tied to the mast of a ship by his sailors so as not to succumb to the desires of the flesh brought on by the beckon call of these seductresses; in the process, he damn near lost his freakin’ mind trying to resist the temptation to throw caution to the wind – as in throw his sorry ass into the ocean -so he could swim to shore just to get in on some of that action. Legend had it that it meant certain death (NO SH!T, geniuses – as in expensive and painfully public divorces?);
3) Coochie Monsters are born, not made. They are called men.
See you all in Hell!
P.S. Bring your own ice.
Christian Right-Wing Homophobe Apparently Likes Carrying Well-Endowed Rentboy’s “Luggage”
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, Fox News, Humor, Media & Communication, Religion, Religion & Spirituality, Sex & Sexuality on May 9th, 2010
“Me Thinks Thou Dost Protest Too Loudly”
– paraphrase of quote from William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”
George Rekers has been one of America’s most vehemently anti-gay activists over the past three decades. He is also a Baptist minister, co-founder of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council – which holds the annual Values Summit, and he is a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina – that bastion of intellectual curiosity. Well OK, at the very least maybe closeted sexual curiosity.
But I digress . . .
He shops at Rent-A-Boy – Rentboy.com - anytime he needs a luggage handler. Of course, Rekers denies that it was anything untoward or sexual in nature. He just needed a little help after having surgery with carrying all that heavy luggage while on vacation – or was it the other way around? Sure looks like he recovered quickly from that surgery. And his boy-toy seemed to equivocate regarding the nature of their little 10 day jaunt together through Europe when confronted by a reporter.
Besides, I suspect the boy-toy’s “luggage” was the heavier of the two, and he needed Rekers’ help to “pack-it tight” every night.
I cannot wait to hear Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter spin this one on Fox News: “Oh, you Left-wing, Liberal media-types need to quit focusing on such insignificant details, and get your heathen minds out of the gutter. You always try to make everything so political.”
You mean like Republican Senator Larry Craig’s “reach-under” in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis Airport in 2007?
However, the story does end on a positive note. Hey George, you just made the list of America’s Top 10 Homophobes Outed From the Closet. And you went straight up the chart to # 1 . . . probably while sitting atop your boy-toy’s ”perfectly built 8 inch cock” (those are his words, George, not mine).
Let me guess . . . you use that “8 inch rod” to hang all your Hawaiian shirts on?
Signs of Neanderthals Mating With Humans . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Culture Wars, NY Times, Sarah Palin, Tea Party on May 6th, 2010
NO SH!T, NY Times?!?
It’s not like we had to be informed of this recent discovery.
They stage protests on a regular basis with Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann as their featured speakers – in political nomenclature, they are called Teabaggers.
Now, do you have any real news to report?









