On tipping:
More goodies to come.
October 14, 2009
Microphoto.
Click here to go to Wired’s collection of some truly amazing microscopy photos. This is a marine algae (Pleurosigma).
October 14, 2009
I feel dumb.
I didn’t know that Goldman Sachs was the second largest contributor to Barack Obama’s campaign.
And now we also hear that Wall Street people are on track to receive their highest earnings yet. We can assume getting billion dollar hot beef injections from the feds would do this. So. Bankers are richer than ever and unemployment is over 10% in some states (as well as in parts of Canada). The great class divide widens and although too early to conclude, the Obama presidency has made it worse.
And you know what? I’m guessing he had no other choice. Although he seems to have a “hands in my pockets hands in my pockets” relationship with big bank, every advisor and expert agreed that big money had to be dumped into the American financial system just to keep it alive. As one would expect, Wall Street smarties were able to capitalize on this. His rhetoric seems like he wants to use policy to squelch excesses, but when one of your biggest contributors is Goldman Sachs, what are we supposed to expect ?
Finally, to me the overarching issue of this whole thing is corporate personhood, allowing corporations similar rights as people. The clear difficulty lies in a corporation’s freedom of speech, thereby allowing them to give big money to political campaigns (among many other things). Without this, there would be drastically less lobbying and a much smaller influence of private interest in public policy. I’m no lawyer, but I’m glad this issue is still aggressively debated. The New York Times has a liberal-focused editorial to this issue here if you want one team’s take.
