Monthly Archives: April 2010
Boycott Arizona
Goldman Sucks
Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into trading at Goldman Sachs, raising the possibility of criminal charges against the Wall Street giant, according to people familiar with the matter.
Also of interest is the fact that the probe by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office — which is known for aggressively investigating financial fraud cases — was not based on an SEC referral and was underway before the SEC announced the civil case on April 16.
(This is from the Washington Post.)
Good. I'm glad to see the Department of Justice going after Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street criminals. Let's hope some of them end up in jail. Civil suits are not enough.
Veritas
Stieg Larsson’s Books
I just finished the two books by Stieg Larsson that are currently available: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire.
What great books! These are riveting, fast-paced mystery/thrillers. No wonder they are worldwide bestsellers. Larsson was a fabulous writer.
Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004. His third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, will be released on May 25, 2010.
Thuggish Partners
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday announced that it has opened a civil investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior by Partners HealthCare, the region's most powerful hospital and physician network. In earlier posts (see here) I've noted what a vile organization Partners is; it's chaired by Jack Connors, one of the most rapacious thugs in Boston, a man who cloaks himself in his Catholic do-goodery but is only devoted to the almighty dollar. I hope the Department of Justice brings Partners down.
I Swear
Ian Frazier has a very funny piece in this week’s New Yorker. At least, it’s funny to me, because he’s describing my life situation. In case you’re wondering, here’s why I have such a foul mouth. He’s describing the “Cursing Mommy.” Well, I’m the Cursing Daddy. I’m not proud of it; but, hey, as Popeye would say, “I yam what I yam.”
If you’re wondering what happened to the Cursing Mommy column scheduled for today, please don’t worry—“How to Make a Festive Holiday Centerpiece Out of Used Coffee Filters and Then Throw It at Your Fucking Husband’s Head” will definitely appear next week. Instead, today I want to take an upbeat and problem-solving look at a very timely subject that all of us have to deal with and may be feeling a bit confused about, and that is health care.
Read the rest here.
How To Save the Catholic Church?
That's the question Peggy Noonan asks in her op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal. She writes, in part:
In a way, the Vatican lives outside time and space. The verities it speaks of and stands for are timeless and transcendent. For those who work there, bishops and cardinals, it can become its own reality. And when those inside fight for what they think is the life of the institution, they feel fully justified in fighting any way they please. . . .
But in the past few decades, they not only fought persons—"If you were loyal you'd be silent"—they fought information.
What they don't fully understand right now—what they can't fully wrap their heads around—is that the information won.
The information came in through the cracks, it came in waves, in newspaper front pages, in books, in news beamed to every satellite dish in Europe and America. The information could not be controlled or stopped. The information was that something very sick was going on in the heart of the church.
Once, leaders of the Vatican felt that silence would protect the church. But now anyone who cares about it must come to understand that only speaking, revealing, admitting and changing will save the church.
She's right: that's the only way the church can be saved. But maybe the church isn't worth saving. Maybe it is too morally and spiritually bankrupt. Maybe it should wither up and die, killed by its own leaders.
Kate Atkinson’s Latest
I've read all of Kate Atkinson's novels. Her latest is When Will There Be Good News? It was chosen by the New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year and appeared on the "best books of the year" lists by the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and a handful of other newspapers. I had liked her other books, so started this one with relish.
It's indeed very good. Atkinson writes well, moving her complicated, intersecting plots along with crispness and humor. But this is not the best of her books. And not nearly as good as the novels by James Hynes that I've noted here in recent weeks.
The Pope Blames the Victims
Every day brings new abominations from the lunatics at the Vatican. Yesterday, the Pope essentially blamed the victims of clergy abuse. That's my reading (uncharitable as you may think it to be) of what he meant when he said that it was necessary for Christians to “repent” in light of “the attacks of the world, which speaks to us of our sins.” What kind of nonsense is that? Christians don't need to repent. The Catholic faithful don't even need to repent. They didn't do anything. The Catholic clergy and hierarchy need to repent; they are the predators, the enablers, the sick criminals who prey on the vulnerable.
One of the best commentaries on the current pope and the sorry state of the Catholic church is by Philip Stephens in today's edition of the Financial Times. Here is what Stevens has to say:
For a time I was puzzled by Pope Benedict’s response to the crisis in the Catholic church. We might disagree about the course of Catholicism. In uncharitable moments, I might mutter that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was politician as much as priest; his piety merged with ambition some time ago. Yet the Pope indisputably was highly intelligent. Surely he could see what was happening.
Now, I think I understand. The pontiff is a globaliser. He can feel the world’s geopolitical plates shifting. He grasps as well as any politician or business leader that the west has had its day. The opportunities to spread the gospel lie elsewhere – in societies more respectful of authority and less questioning of past crimes.
Pope Benedict, after all, cannot be blind to the crisis of faith among his flock in Europe and North America. He must have known as well as anyone else how many tens of millions had walked away even before the revelations of clerical child abuse and episcopal cover-ups.
He has seen what has happened in Ireland where unerring fealty to Rome has given way to revulsion and disillusionment. He knows seminaries across Europe are empty, and Catholicism in the US convulsed.
No, the dismal reality, I now think, is that the Pope does not care – or at least does not care enough to bend from the unflinching defence of temporal power that described his personal path to the throne of St Peter. If the eventual choice is one between the implosion of the church in the west and a dilution of the blind obedience he sees as an anchor of papal authority, Pope Benedict is ready to stand in the ruins.
Sense and Nonsense 