Noah’s plight and the world of Green Porno

According to the Bible, Noah was ordered to take one male and one female of each species. This part of loading the ark seems easy, at least conceptually.  Just gather up one male and one female of each of the many thousands of species of critters before beginning the journey.

7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
But there is a problem: many critters don't mate in the "traditional" way, using one male and one female. Luckily, there's help on the way: a reenactment of the boarding of ark.  This delightful and informative "Green Porno" video features Isabella Rosellini.

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A Manufactured “Crisis”

The whole debt ceiling “crisis" is the latest battle in The Republican War on Christmas and, as usual, completely manufactured by Republicans for narrow political ends. Since March 1962, the debt ceiling has been raised 74 times, according to the Congressional Research Service. Ten of those times have occurred since 2001. The debt ceiling has been raised all these times without any of the Republican shenanigans now going on. If a default occurs, it will be solely the fault of Republican hyper-partisanship and completely unnecessary. If a default occurs, our nation's economy will go into the tank as immediately billions of dollars will be extracted from the nation's economy crushing any economic recovery and devaluing stocks by at least one third and causing a loss of US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of at least 5%. The US economic crash could spiral into a worldwide crash and precipitate another Great Recession or a New Depression. [More . . . ]

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Insider Trading Writ Large

Imagine, if you will, a country in which banking regulations were stripped down so far that worthless paper again becomes a hot commodity. Now consider that this had (as it inevitably must) blown up and caused a crash in the lending market and equities market and thus the economy in general. Further note that a necessary result would be a rapid rise in the price of precious metals, notably gold. After a couple of years, that gold bubble would be ripe. People who had assets remaining when the junk bonds or sub-prime mortgages or whatever collapsed could have conservatively moved their money into gold, further depressing the equities market and inflating the price of gold. But, wait. Because of government investing, the market was recovering too fast! So fast that the wealthy were unable to swap their inflated gold for depressed stocks at the optimum time. What to do? Congress to the rescue! The wholly owned carriers of the banners of freedom and independence could be employed to create a palpably unnecessary crisis with a distinct deadline. Yes! This would quickly depress the markets and allow those holding too much bubble-gold to buy depressed stocks. Meanwhile, those elected to carry the load of screwing the middle class could also jump on the wagon and buy up stocks just before the deadline hits. Then the price of stocks returns to normal levels, and the gold bubble can be allowed to pop. I, for one, would like to see the trading histories of all those involved in the current crisis, and their friends and kin.

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