Look out kid, it's something you did.

Chutzpah meter is pinned this week. AIG and Mo Greenberg decide to show the United States of America their appreciation for the big bailout by threatening to join a shareholder lawsuit and sue the government for $25 billion dollars.

You're welcome.

Kellogg, Grown and Root, better known as KBR, a Halliburton spinoff, was recently found guilty of serious complicity in the deaths of American servicemen, having deliberately concealed the toxicity of a dangerous carcinogen, sodium dichromate. They were purportedly covered by a legal indemnification for the consequences of the jury trial, and  believe that it is the responsibility of the United States government to pay the $85 million dollar tab as well as $15 million in attorney's fees. Didn't seem to really matter to them how many of our servicemen were killed. They were covered.

"It's basically saying that no matter if we're guilty of -- willful misconduct, poisoning soldiers -- taxpayers have to pay to cover us as well as whatever we decide to pay on lawyers at whatever rates and all these fees. That's a pretty good bailout." - Houston attorney Michael Doyle

Friends like this... Thanks, Dick Cheney.

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Tactical Response firearms CEO James Yeager threatens to start killing people.

“Vice President [Joe] Biden is asking the president to bypass Congress and use executive privilege, executive order to ban assault rifles and to impose stricter gun control,” Yeager explained in his video message. “Fuck that.”
“I’m telling you that if that happens, it’s going to spark a civil war, and I’ll be glad to fire the first shot. I’m not putting up with it. You shouldn’t put up with it. And I need all you patriots to start thinking about what you’re going to do, load your damn mags, make sure your rifle’s clean, pack a backpack with some food in it and get ready to fight.”
The CEO concluded: “I’m not fucking putting up with this. I’m not letting my country be ruled by a dictator. I’m not letting anybody take my guns! If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.”

The gun lobby sure has some colorful proponents, Ted Nugent, Wayne LaPierre, Alex Jones, this dude. Keep talking, fella's.

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Florida Atlantic Communications Professor James Tracy thinks that Newtown probably never happened, but if it really did, it was perpetrated by the Obama Administration.

“Moreover, to suggest that [President Barack] Obama is not capable of deploying such techniques to achieve political ends is to similarly place ones faith in image and interpretation above substance and established fact, the exact inclination that in sum has brought America to such an impasse.”

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When I heard that the President had nominated Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary I thought, cool, time we had an asian in the cabinet. Wrong.

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Did you hear that India's most popular guru blamed the woman in the recent notorious rape in New Delhi?

"Guilt is not one-sided," the guru, Asaram Bapu, told followers this week, adding that if the student had pleaded with her six attackers in God's name, and told them she was of the "weaker sex", they would have relented."
“Only 5-6 people are not the culprits. The victim daughter is as guilty as her rapists… She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop… This could have saved her dignity and life,”  Asaram said.
“Can one hand clap? I don’t think so,” he quiped.
On one hand where the nation is wants a strong law against rape, Asaram said he is against harsher punishments for offenders as the law could be "misutilised."

Kind of neat to hear a hindu reach for the zen "one hand clapping" card. The defendants' lawyer echoed the guru's mantra of blame, saying he has never heard of a “respected lady” being raped in India.

"Manohar Lal Sharma said his clients will plead not guilty to all charges Thursday when they make their next court appearance.
Sharma said the male companion of the murdered 23-year-old was “wholly responsible” for the incident as the unmarried couple should not have been on the streets at night.
“Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady,” Sharma said in an interview at a café outside the Supreme Court in India's capital. “Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect.”

Now we know why the American sage, Bob Dylan, cautions us not to follow leaders but instead to watch the parking meters.

Read something yesterday about a recent rape in the indian countryside that was covered up by the local police. Apparently the brahmins feel that they have a right to rape the outcasts, now known as dalits. In one recent case a 16 year old was brutally raped and forced to drink pesticide. An eight year old girl was raped and murdered in Bihar last month.

There are so many of these stories in India, it is truly disgusting, as is the commonly held view that it is somehow the victim's fault, men being men. A racist caste system and religious hierarchy ensures that change will come slowly, if ever.

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I was thinking about the statement from Bapu and had a thought. Women are subjugated and sexually harassed all over the world and there is usually a religious force behind the scenes that runs cover for the largely male power structure. More often than not, subjugation of women is a vital part of the popular belief system.

You see it in Israel where the orthodox jews force women to the back of the bus or even a separate bus, where a woman can't even divorce a shitty husband, the islamic world, where women are raped, stoned and killed for family honor. Not allowed to drive or show their faces publicly. Can't vote, killed when they try to get an education.

In this largely christian country, it takes a slightly less lethal and more subtle form but the male subjugation of women also exists. Christian women are expected to submit to their male spouse's superior authority. They are denied control of their reproductive choices. They are told that their place is in the home raising children and that their entrance into the workplace has undermined the american family. Female politicians are ridiculed and judged by their looks, something you never hear about with their male counterparts.

Rush Limbaugh 12.15.12

LIMBAUGH: I found myself in an elevator with Mrs. Clinton once. It was at a wedding, Brooklyn, doors locked, she hits the stop button. She said, Oh Rush, I've wanted to see you for so long, and nobody would believe it. Would you, would you make a real woman out of me? I said, Sure, let's take off our clothes. So I took mine off, and I pointed and I said, Now fold them.

Saw this Pat Robertson quip today on AlterNet:

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/pat-robertson-outrage-hard-nosed-awful-looking-women-are-ruining-marriages


“A woman came to a preacher I know—it’s so funny. She was awful looking. Her hair was all torn up, she was overweight, and looked terrible…” “And she said, ‘Oh, Reverend, what can I do? My husband has started to drink.’And the preacher looked at her and he said, ‘Madam, if I were married to you, I’d start to drink too.’

Lot of toxic misogyny out there in this world. Begs a question why men hate women so badly? Why the incessant need to control them?