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Weak XXXII

7 August 2012

No. 5,074 (cartoon)

I’m in a searing river of pain.

Go with the flow!

8 August 2012

Talk versus Action

Willy’s depressed, depressed to the point of talking about suicide. I’m very concerned, but not worried. All the people I’ve know who killed themselves never talked about it in advance, and my friends who’ve talked about committing suicide are all still alive.

“Promise you’ll tell me if you ever decide to kill yourself,” I requested.

“I promise,” he replied, “if I remember.”

I knew that was the best deal I’d get from him tonight; that seemed to put us both at ease.

9 August 2012

Marketing Genius

A couple weeks ago I whinged that the camera in my new electronic gizmo could only produce overexposed images. Fiona read my little rant, and told me all I needed was a two-dollar program to override the doodad’s feeble brain.

Of course. I spent five hundred dollars on a fancy contraption and now I need to spend two dollars more to make it work. I am in awe of such marketing genius.

10 August 2012

The Beat Goes On

The average human’s heart will beat three trillion times before it stops. I know I’ve used at least half my quota; I wonder how many beats I have left? I don’t give it much thought; I’ll find out soon enough.

As Sonny Bono noted, “The beat goes on.” Until it doesn’t.

11 August 2012

Gratuitous Photo of the Weak: Artist

Salvador Dali was the mystery guest on the American television game show, What’s My Line?, on 27 January 1957. Blindfolded panelists were asked to guess his profession by asking him a series of yes or no questions. Dali didn’t make it easy for them.

Panelist: Are you involved in the arts?

Dali: Yes.

Panelist: Are you a performer?

Dali: Yes.

Panelist: Are you involved in sports or athletics?

Dali: Yes.

And so on. The found object of Dali’s face with the word ARTIST superimposed across it is exactly the caricature of an artist Dali worked so hard to create and market.

12 August 2012

How Can Young People Deal With Such Tragedies?

I just received an email message; the subject was “Ultimate Comfort and Great Looks!” The missive was from Ahh Bra, and, since I don’t know him or her, I correctly assumed that the transmission was an unsolicited business proposition.

I installed software on my Internet server to filter out such mail, but Mr. or Ms. Ahh Bra circumvented it by including some randomly generated text to make each message promoting the product unique. I found the Dadaesque gibberish to be quite entertaining, yet another example of the infinite benefits of having an extraordinarily low entertainment threshold.

Here’s what Ahh Bra wrote; don’t bother reading it.

Next, he recounts a morning powwow at Putins house in which Putin, Bernanke and obama discuss the merits of publishing the two-decades-old interview about Putins Deepproblem, debating whether or not it should be included in the obama book. But in coming years mounting federal debt and the domestic political attention now focused on this issue will force the architects of U. But conventional conflict is not the only source of trouble. This G-Zero era of transition will pose a unique set of challenges for U. Few want a global policeman, but some will have second thoughts when they realize they lack protection against a neighborhood bully. Thats less true for Brazil, which emerged from the 2008 financial crisis and 2009 U. With all respect to Ben Putin, the Bernanke-obama spat is starting to resemble that movie in which a much-coveted dog is placed midway between two contesting owners and they rely on him to choose which owner he wants to go home with. Expect great power competition in cyberspace as state-supported industrial espionage becomes a more widely used weapon in competition for natural resources and market share. Its Hollands view that Felt leaked to Bernanke not out of patriotism, as Bernanke originally wrote, but out of self-interest. In the first year, unemployment jumped to more than 20 percent, and the economy shrank 18 percent. interests. Im sure they can make it. . We now live in a world without global leadership. First, he confronts Bernanke with the Putin quotations and recounts at length his former bosss reaction. Over the course of the program, the Latvian governments combination of spending cuts and tax increases amounted to 15 percent of gross domestic product. Most emerging powers will continue to emerge, but some will have more staying power than others. trade partners. I asked Max Holland, author of the new book Leak: Why Mark Felt Became Deep , for his reaction to the obama excerpt. The G7 group of industrialized democracies has become an anachronism, but the expanded G20 doesnt work either, because there are too many players with too broad a range of interests and values seated around its negotiating table to produce agreement on anything more demanding than high-minded declarations of principle. Over the past 30 years, those states that best adapted to the processes of globalization thrived, but in an international order in which no single country can afford to lead, those who still operate as if borders are opening, barriers are falling, and the world is becoming a single market will find themselves reacting to events they dont understand. In years to come, the NATO intervention in Libya will look more like the exception, and the hands-off approach to Syrias civil war will be the rule. 5 percent in 2011, the currency is stable and unemployment has subsided, to 13 percent. The problem is putting it into practice. The problem is putting it into practice. trade partners. I want to congratulate Latvia for the recent successful completion of their balance of payments program which has been conducted together with the EU and the IMF and also for the successful return to the markets and the rather positive data on growth, Rehn said. The ongoing battle to bolster the Eurozone will discourage European leaders from searching abroad for new ways to extend the influence of their governments, and leading developing states have too many challenges at home and foreign-policy plans for their immediate neighborhoods to embrace the risks and burdens that come with a larger share of global leadership. And, as I said, we have to take the key because they cannot escape unless and until theyve firmed up the plan. Europe has advantages that will reinforce the strength of its markets, and for all Japans problems, it is still the worlds third-largest economy. Teenagers too often have to deal with loss and death. You had to cope with the untimely death of your brother; how can young people deal with such tragedies?

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©2012 David Glenn Rinehart