Какая прелесть!

http://www.ogoniok.com/5052/43/

Мы встретим их нежно и денег предложим.
Любезно российское небо им!
Есть вещи, которых мы делать не можем:
для них мы приезжего требуем.

России всегда самовластье во благо,
и чтоб государство поправилось —
мы править собой призываем варяга.
(Был также грузин. Не понравилось.)

Task Force Odin

Interesting article on how the Military uses pattern recognition and analysis in Iraq to spot IEDs and ambushes.

Muggles Report Army Magic

Fair and balanced

Jesus H Christ, when will this bullshit end?

"Countrywide's unfair lending practices have harmed tens of thousands of borrowers who've been placed in unaffordable loans and, as a result, our communities are now being destabilized by a skyrocketing number of home foreclosures," Madigan said in a statement Wednesday. Her office said that the company played a "major role" in the foreclosure crisis, all in an attempt to dominate the U.S. mortgage market.

"Countrywide repeatedly qualified borrowers for mortgage loans based on salaries that were significantly higher than what they really made," Madigan added. "As a result, Countrywide put borrowers into loans that they could never afford, leading to high failure rates."

Among other things, the suit asks the court to rescind or reform all Countrywide loans originated "with the use of unfair and deceptive practices."

"This includes providing financial relief to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure, refinanced, sold or have loans currently being serviced by Countrywide, even if that requires Countrywide to repurchase loans from current investor owners," according to Madigan's office.

For the umpteenth time: I do agree that Countrywide was aggressive in peddling the loans -- they had a financial interest in doing so. They got greedy. They fucked up. They went belly up and were bought out. That's the price you pay for not managing risk properly. All fair.

However, the AG's statements basically state that people who signed the documents for the loans they knew (don't give me the "I'm an idiot" defense) they can't afford are somehow free of any responsibility. Where is the sense of personal responsibility? If a swindler wants you to sign something that is too good to be true and you sign it without understanding what it is -- you're a fucking cow who deserves to be slaughtered, and you pay the price for mismanaging the risk to your own finances.

I'm so fucking tired of this victimhood bullshit coming from assholes who wanted a free house bought by financial hustlers and got burned.

Track of the day

US3 - "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)"

Good stuff!