more rotting empire

8-6-07—now they tell us-- …The Greenspan Fed is one reason for the current mortgage mess. …Mr. Bernake and the Fed …can’t afford to ignore global dollar weakness. WSJ A1

--moral Hoosiers—Before Nevada, there was Indiana… the state legislature gave its courts wide latitude in granting divorces. … Eastern states took the train to Indianapolis, where they bought legal advice, hotel rooms and cab rides. …In 1858, an Indianapolis newspaper said the city was “overrun by a flock of ill-used and ill-using, petulant, libidinous, extravagant, ill-fitting husbands and wives.” WSJ B1

--The higher a community’s ethnic and religious diversity, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects…. Dr. Putnam’s study … suggests that in diverse communities, trust erodes not only between members of different ethnic groups, it erodes within the ethnic group as well..recent research also suggests that diversity increases economic and creative innovation… WSJ B6

--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or about half the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police, according to a government report.

--Struggling to fill the ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Army is now trying a new incentive: offering new and returning enlistees $20,000 QS [Quick Ship] bonuses—AP

: The military is founded on the ideals of patriotism, defense of the nation, and loyalty to an abstract set of values called the “American way of life.” Most of its members, however, are motivated by defense-establishment careerism, the possibility of using the military as a way out of racial and economic ghettoes, and a fascination, often media-inspired, with military technology…. Almost none enlist primarily out of patriotic or public-service motives…. Crime and racism are ubiquitous in the military C. Johnson, THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE, p. 106

COULMIER:This is outright defeatism

At this very moment our soldiers are laying down their lives

For the freedom of the world and for our freedom(MARAT/SADE,1964)