The gods swat back the corporations who think they own the Fourth of July

Last year I expressed great frustration with corporations who have no compunctions hoisting their own profit-tool logos on the same flag poles as American Flags. And they choose to do this on America's most holy of civic holidays. I first noticed this crass display last year at the biggest Fourth of July celebration in Fair St. Louis. What's the problem with allowing corporate logos to flap in the wind right next to Old Glory? I can't think of a bigger insult to the People of the United States at a time when big money, mostly corporate money, has essentially purchased Congress, divesting ordinary people of the ability to run their own country. If there is anything that the Fourth of July is supposed to represent it is the notion that the governed should be self-governed (but do also check out this excellent recent article by Mark Tiedemann, who considers what it really means to be patriotic).

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Will you go to this extent to bring big shots to your parties?

Fascinating story about parties crowded with somebodies thrown by an utterly dysfunctional couple, Albrecht Muth and Viola Drath. You'll love this in the New York Times story if you are a forensic psychologist.

Muth, in other words, perfected the methodology for his social Ponzi scheme. For parties, he would start with bait. He theorized that Drath’s ties to Nebraska’s representatives in Washington — Senator Chuck Hagel, in particular — would bring in other politicians. Muth would also approach military officials attached to the embassies, who he knew were often lonely figures in town; he understood that their attendance would help him attract foreign-policy columnists. “The whole Western alliance was represented,” according to Roland Flamini, a former Time correspondent. In a 2010 e-mail to Drath, Muth explicitly detailed his approach: “You meet someone of import, check him out, determine [if] he can be of use, you make him yours. At some point you must decide whether to run him as a useful idiot, he not catching on as to who you are and what you do.”

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Infographic: Many reasons why the United States should legalize marijuana

I found this infographic full of useful data, all pointing in one direction: We should legalize use of marijuana by taxing and regulating it. The current approach of subjecting users to the criminal justice system is destructive and immoral.

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What would you do if you were embarrassed that you produced coal?

What if you were a huge producer of coal, an extremely dirty fossil fuel that is a huge contributor to cooking planet earth? You'd likely change your name from "Peabody Coal" to something like "Peabody Energy." And you would never put a image of your dirty product on your building. You wouldn't want people to know the facts about huge ash pits that result from burning coal, and you would want people to know about the accumulation of toxic materials in those ash pits. And you'd probably be tempted to hide behind huge banners promoting ostensible charitable causes, including the United Way, whose President/CEO made more than $800,000 last year. If you really had balls, you'd start a campaign calling the dirty coal you produced "clean coal," even though this claim of "cleanness" is total bullshit.

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