Well, erm...Yeah. This is technically correct.

Yeah, the song is pretty lame but still awfully cocky as it was made by a group of bankers who seem to think this whole recession is hysterical since it made them rich. Fast forward to about 45 seconds.

The last governor, George Ryan, was convicted a couple years ago of racketeering. Now your current governor, Rod Blagojevichcjkdsajkldsorsomething, is trying to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat? Is Illinois the state version of Washington DC (Marion Barry)?

The two pillars of the housing industry that had the largest role in killing our economy were Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. By purchasing and backing all those crazy loans, they imbued them with the appearance of government stability and oversight. When the market crashed, they claimed ignorance.

Of course after review of emails, it turns out that the guys in charge of Risk were loudly sounding the alarm bells as far as 2004. Somehow these clairvoyant folks felt that making loans to people with no credit and no verification of their income would result in inordinately high numbers of defaults (people not paying their mortgages).

Their warnings were summarily ignored and those that kept raising the alarms, like Freddie Mac Chief Enterprise Risk Officer David Andrukonis, were asked to resign or fired. How come the people responsible for ruining our economy are not in jail?

Bowdlerizing is a means of censoring a book named after the infamous Thomas Bowdler, who tore sections out of Shakespeares plays back in the 19th Century. Although I am all for shortening some of those horribly boring works, he did it because he felt it was too racy or evil. Well his philosophy of line-item book burning is being followed by Cindy Babcock Deutsch, President of the Thought Police Board of Education of the New Rochelle School District. What did she censor? A section of the book "Girl, Interrupted" in which a girl discusses oral sex. This being studied by a senior year english class (who have NEVER even CONCEIVED of what oral sex is).

You stay progressive, Cindy. I am sure you'll embrace forever having your name equated with book burner on the internet sooner or later.

Why on earth would I post something about Yankee free agents? You're right, the story itself is rather boring. But the gem was found in the first comment. Baseball guru, Galosi, had this to say about the story:

"I think the Yankees are making a big mistake if they do not sign Abreu.He was the best clutch hitter they had.Our offense is not improving without him."

I guess the term clutch is relative.

For anyone who has ever worked on a requirements document, you will know that version control is invaluable. For those of you who haven't here is a quick summary:

If you were making a list of things you want for some large or complex project, over time you will find somethings are unfeasible/too expensive/not important enough. But if it takes a long time to compile that list, someone new to the project might try to re-add those things or waste time talking about them. That is why system engineering is heavily reliant on version control. For example:

Things I want for the party:

1 - Food
2 - Beer
3 - Clown too expensive
4 3 - Music

So basically, in a review mode, you list EVERY item that was ever included even if it was removed AND you list a reason why it was removed. Pretty simple, right? Wouldn't it be great if the laws of the land were subject to the same type of review standards?

HR 1933

1 - Universal Healthcare opposed by health insurance companies
2 - Regulate oil as if it were a utility like electricity or water vehemently opposed by oil industry
3 1 - Bridge to no where
4 2 - Pay Raise for Congress

Write your congressman.

While working as a substitute teacher (called a supply teacher in England), Alex Dolan was outraged at how shitty her schools were (she covered at several schools in Leeds and London). She was even MORE outraged when the "inspection team" would come and, coincedentally, more teachers than normal were at school and the problem children were absent from school (on day-trips). So she decided to sneak a camera into her classroom and video tape her disrespectful kids and the overall shittiness that is the inner city school system. She made a documentary of it called Undercover Teacher.

And now she is fighting for her teaching career.

The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough. You can't make this shit up.

Did you know that when Ford, GM or Chrysler has employees not building cars, they are still paying 85-95% of their salaries and benefits? That includes temporary shutdowns as well as factory closures. How long do they pay these people not to work? No longer than FOREVER. It's called Jobs Bank.

Look it up. Can't find a link other than news articles about it? That's probably because the UAW doesn't want people to know about it (outside the union).