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Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
I forgot Dale Akiki when I implied witch hunts were of the past. The prosecutors are always more unhinged than the witches. Those elsewhere in 1994 should check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Akiki To the credit of our psychotic city, it was said that the Crips and the Bloods united to protect him during his thirty month martyrdom in our jail, the jury didn't buy it, and the jail deputies threw in to get him a limousine home. The two million settlement was cheap, and helpful, but justice was thwarted when we didn't see Ed Miller frog hopping in orange.— February 3, 2010 2:38 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 149 This scam is usually for firms who are going private, by the time they get done, buying out the suckers is sometimes sold as an act of charity. After going private the books are harder to access, so the scam is difficult to spot. The story is man bites dog because scammers rarely run profitable companies. I think I have read of this in your column, in any case you are my leading expert in Ben Franklin's first law of economics; "A fool and his money are soon parted.". There is one line in the prospectus that is normally completely truthful, taxes paid. The books kept for the government are usually starkly pessimistic. Tax lawyers are cheap and pliable, so firms that seem to be paying too much taxes have two great assets for the investor, insiders that wish to stay in, and management that obeys the law.— February 3, 2010 1:20 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 154 The surgeon frightens me more than the mugger for two reasons; the mugger, after taking your money usually doesn't bother to cut you, and when he cuts you he only knows enough to bring you to a quick death. The surgeon takes your money AND cuts you, and knows enough to keep on cutting you for years. A surgeon saved my life, but I know that he has the ego that can take a little teasing, Thorton Hospital Heart Team a cheer for you. My surgeon told me "We don't follow the standard here, we set the standard.". Morbid obesity is a terrible epidemic, and I wouldn't denounce a treatment without alternatives. Before removing the bowels try removing the television and refrigerator from the patient's home. If this fails, send the the patient to an island paradise lacking only unhealthy food. I know these radical treatments would be cheaper than gastric bypass surgery, I suspect that a study might prove them more effective, but I doubt this study will ever be made, because no one could make a lot of money. Self knowledge of insanity is the first step to rational mind. I am insane. I am also ignorant. My knowledge of Freud is limited to one incredibly provocative book, I know even less about gastric bypass, but I believe it violates the principle "First do no harm.". Inform us— February 3, 2010 12:27 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 147 Such an an important influence on Reptilism deserves defense. My exposure to Freud is limited to TOTEM AND TABOO, but I can testify that any lover of prose must find him a great writer, even if they reject his careful argument for instinctively absurd ideas. His argument that revulsion and absurdity is an important window on human instinct can't be refuted by mere mockery, or by pointing out that his ideas are revolting. Psycholizard thanks Dr. Freud for being among the first to treat the mentally ill, who were previously chained to cages, or burned as witches. His discovery of the unconscious alone makes his place among modern thinkers. The discovery that childhood trauma can lead to adult mental disease has saved generations from the beatings that once were the duty of parents. As for psychoanalysis, many early twentieth century medical treatments have been superseded by more effective ones, that doesn't make the previous treatments a fraud. Remember that psychoanalysis is fundamentally harmless, the same can't be said of electroshock or lobotomies. I detest the modern quacks who treat neuroses with surgery. Healthy bowels should not be cut by gastric bypass because someone has a neurotic desire to eat. Healthy testicles should not be removed because someone feels stylish only in a dress. We the insane want to thank Dr. Freud for being the first to listen to us carefully, and thank him and his followers for not attacking us with knives.— February 3, 2010 1:27 a.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
Re #146 We lizards have a dispute with the Zen people going back to that haiku about the frog jumping in the water. A lizard was meant to be in that haiku but was written out at the last moment. They tore up his contract, saying the the lizard walked off the scroll. He thought the man was sleeping, it's easily confused with meditation. No one knew that the haiku was to be the hit of the millennium, I mean "plop plop" something must be lost in translation. In fairness to the East, they got their drug habit from the West, and lost some wars trying to stop the trade.— February 2, 2010 11:38 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 143 This is 99% true, but there are rare cases where the prospectus is iced, where the insiders know they have struck oil, or found a new drug, and conceal this from the suckers they intend to buy out. There are even rarer cases of publicly held companies run by honest reptiles, I've heard of them, never seen one, but intend to invest as soon as I catch that snipe in the backyard my friends told me about. I'll invest the money I get from selling the snipe to a zoo.— February 2, 2010 2:02 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
No points for confusing my play on Keats for Zen. Wait a second, full points for noting the timelessness of the farcically pompous. Did Keats know Zen? Perhaps he met her in the intellectual brothel run by Madame de Stael.— February 2, 2010 1:08 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 139 All thought is stock prospectus, the creation of the beast, for the beast. Only by understanding the needs of the beast can we understand thought, or the stock prospectus. All thought should be tested by reason before granting it power, just as we should go over the books with a calculator before investing. Ignore the glossy pictures, except in the case of penny stocks where the prospectus may be more valuable than the stock to collectors of funny books.— February 2, 2010 12:21 p.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
to 130 Full points for spotting Reptilism's debt to the great Pre Reptilian Sigmund Freud. To clarify, thought is a path to the truth but thought is not truth and truth is not thought. Therefore all thought is delusion. because it cannot be truth. You will write a great essay in spite of this advice.— February 2, 2010 1:23 a.m.
Wall Street is feasting off Main Street’s pain
To 131 I asked my pal Electrolizard about the Rockman and the Beathaven, he says he likes them, but is more influenced by Rameau and Bach. There was this kid Steve Merrill who worshiped Mahler, before he was transformed by the bite of the Great Lizard.— February 1, 2010 1:17 p.m.