Quote[s] of the Day

There is also a strong drift of our society towards corruption. One sign of this is the fading power of the law.

Looking back, Bernanke said the world came close to a financial meltdown. Asked how close, Bernanke responded: "It was very close."

America's recession "probably" will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Sunday in a rare television interview.

NVDL: Does that make sense to you? Bernanke (aka Bullshitter) one moment says the world's finance system came within a whisker of melting down, next moment he says we'll be recovering soon, back in the black, all things go, whoopedydoo, later this year? Er...does he think we're a herd of fools?


Returning to Soweto after a day's work, some people have to make two or three additional taxi connections to get home through the sprawling townships. Many cannot afford this and the shoulders of the connector highways off the freeway in Soweto were filled in late afternoon with streams of people heading home on foot, some burdened with bundles, some carrying things on their heads.

The sheer monetary expense of doing all this must be out of this world for people with not much to begin with. Somehow, the insanity of it has been established as "normal," and there were few signs that the government -- now black-majority, after all -- was planning to rectify the situation. There are plans to run a new subway line across town, but at this point it is conceived mainly as a connector to the main airport. The South African rail system -- like America's -- is completely inadequate, and the mandatory motoring program so deeply ingrained -- and associated with the extremes of security and fortification -- that no workable consensus for getting beyond the current situation can be formed. - James Kunstler on South Africa