Protecting The One Percent

The Mormon Diaries, Chapter 3: Mormon Night Football

I didn’t mean to make the Mormons run away.

I didn’t mean to ruin their Family Home Evening night, either. But they were getting preachy, boring, and I had wine.

Family Home Evening—or FHE as the cool Mormons call it for short—is their version of Happy Hour. Every Monday night while us non-believers watch Monday Night Football or laugh-tracked CBS sitcoms, they gather. They swarm bowling alleys, campgrounds, and Red Lobsters across the globe.

The neighbors hyped FHE up all week: “attractive” girls, a free banquet dinner, “surprise” entertainment. I did not particularly want to go. But it was a Monday night. In Utah. And I wanted to be affable. Restore some goodwill after the weekend’s Never Have I Ever debacle.

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The Revolution Will Be Bureaucratic And Undemocratic

The Article: Europe’s Revolution From Above by Étienne Balibar in the Guardian.

The Text: After the fall of the Greek and Italian governments and the disaster of the Spanish left in this Sunday’s elections, what is happening in Europe? Are we looking at incidents in a minor story of political reshuffles that have failed to keep up with the financial crisis? Or are we crossing a threshold in the very development of this crisis, which will have an irreversible impact on institutions and the manner in which they are legitimated? Despite the unknowns, it’s time to risk an assessment.

There is not a great deal to be said about electoral events (such as the one that will probably occur in France in six months’ time). It is clear that voters hold governments responsible for the growing social insecurity experienced by a majority of citizens in our countries, and that they have few illusions about their successors (although there is no denying that in the wake of Silvio Berlusconi, one can understand why Mario Monti is, at least for the moment, setting new popularity records).

The more important question concerns the evolution of institutions. Resignations in response to pressure from markets, which make borrowing costs rise or fall, the emergence of a Franco-German “directorate” within the EU, and the enthronement of technicians linked to international finance, ordained and supervised by the IMF, cannot fail to provoke debates, emotions, expressions of concern and justifications.

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Your Love Is Gone!

Gone Daddy Gone by the Violent Femmes off of Violent Femmes.

Oh Herman Cain, We’ll All Miss You

And I didn’t even get the chance to lay into you. Hopefully there will be a next time, dear Herman.