Ex Post Facto | 3 Indian Men Indicted in Stock Scheme

Now that CNBC's last half-baked marketing ploy, the "Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge", has ended, I believe it prudent to point out that the game's sponsor, OptionsXpress, was, themselves, one of the on-line equity trading brokers who had been hacked, resulting in the unauthorized use a few of their clients' accounts (see link below).

I'm not sure how others may feel about it, but for me, any company that has suffered poor security issues for on-line business doesn't bode well for future on-line endeavors without first offering real detailed reassurances.

Put into perspective, when you compare the real cost of mounting other forms advertising aimed at reviving CNBC's recent soggy viewer ratings, this public invitational game is a bargain; especially if it concomitantly has no significant increase in risk exposure. Put another way, from CNBC's point of view, it may have been a little fucked-up but in the grand scheme of things it was still majorly cheap -- so bombs away, as they say.

This bit of scary news on OptionsXpress' technical competence (or lack thereof) did help to explain the alarmingly awkward first week of CNBC's sweepstakes promotion. It was that little faux-pas that effectively let out the last bit of "fun" in the game's proverbial sails for me; and so I bowed out shortly thereafter.

Link > http://biz.yahoo.com/ap//brokerage_hackers.html?.v=4

Liberals vs. Conservatives | The falacy of modern American political assumptions

It's a topic so common that it has moved beyond the ephemeral atmosphere of metaphor into something that resembles fokelore. You'd have to be dead, literally, not to have heard it, let alone be driping in it. What's strange, though, is that as common as it is, most people dismiss it without giving it any real thought.

Maybe it's because it's so often repeated that nearly everyone hears their own mental response in their own heads the split second the topic leaves someone's lips. Unlike other hackneyed topics, generalizations, issues, or what have you, this one stands alone, in a realm framed in marble pillars. Indeed, why has it become a neurological sedative, especially when you consider that like all the rest it began as repetitious jargon, is a conundrum?

At this point in time, especially now, while we all listen to the final painful murderous dirge of the Last Act, draped in full Machivelean crushed velvet cloaks, I'm at a loss to explain it. Modern politics is the art of endlessly looping rhetoric, if nothing else, so why would this be any different?

What the hell am I going on, and on, about?

It's the whole "liberal vs. conservative" issue -- often translated (erroneously) as Democrat vs. Republican -- of course!

Yes, yes... I'm well aware of it's recent history where arch-conservative pundits managed to assail non-conservatives with the term "liberal"; and, oddly enough, it actually forced a defensive posture in many of you who do think of yourselves as "liberals", and for some, it seems to have resulted in permanent psychological scaring.

I'm sorry for those who have suffered a full-on "liberal" guilt/insecurity meltdown, really, I am.

Once, out of jest, I accused a very dear friend of mine of being a "bleeding-heart liberal", who responded with the best quip I have yet heard. To my pejorative remark, she very calmly replied, "Yes, I am a bleeding-heart liberal; so much so that I'm faint from the loss of blood!"

Nevertheless, if your flimsy liberal ass still needs a little consolation, you may wish to consider that those accusing you of being a "horrid liberal" are, in fact, all impostors -- or haven't you noticed? No? Well, wake up! No true conservative would ever allow a woman to address a man on topics of political discourse in any public forum. That's just one shibboleth, which suggests that we haven't begun to broach the outside boundary to your ignorance.

Were I to be pressed for an appraisal regarding you, as well as your epigonic opposite, I would not hesitate to state that as political extremists both groups comprise an alarming amount of unnecessary social pollution that clearly impedes important political progress.

But, I digress. It's nothing more than name calling (i. e., argumentum ad hominem for those who remember the types of logical fallacies to correct critical thinking). That's all it is. They're calling you names! Okay, people, don't you get it? Hello... sticks and stones... geez?!

But, that's not the point.

The point is: never once has one side ever had all the answers. I repeat. NEVER ONCE HAVE EITHER THE LIBERALS OR THE CONSERVATIVES EVER HAD ALL THE ANSWERS.

Think about it. How utterly retarded does it sound to you that someone would claim that they are completely 100% liberal, or conversely, 100% conservative? Come on! The reasons for this should be so obvious to anybody with half a brain that discussing it actually is retarded.

Commentary by Ann Coulter, the self-affirmed polemist and ultra-facist political pundit , is a perfect example. Who cares what a cum-guzzling crack whore has to say? You're kidding me, right... the boney-ass Nazi hooker is allowed to speak... huh... what? Anyway.

So... why the fuck would anyone listen to anybody who is spewing this kind of vapid rhetoric? If anything, it's a clear indication of who the "bullshittig" freak is, n'est pas? By the way, did you enjoy the irony of that last argumentum ad hominem comment of mine? I did.

But, I digress... again. Sorry.

Here's a shocking fact. I'm both liberal and conservative, and I always have been. Here's another shocking fact. So are pretty much all the rest of the humans on the planet (if you define the issue properly).

Whatever "shit-for-brains" dumb-ass dork wants to label me, or you, and believes that name calling is a reasonable substitute for addressing a political issue on point, can suck it... BFD! And, yet ... [pause for long overly dramatic grasp] ... far too many adults still don't seem to get it.

Stop it already! Ignore that shit. It's irrelevant because what they are saying is irrelevant.

Now.

Please, can we get back to topics worthy of our time and attention? I beg you all out there with brains.