AIG has been on every media this last week. The 100+ million dollar bonuses for the very AIG executives got the whole country boiled over.
Some people argue that the bonuses are written in contract and a contract is a contract. I can swallow that.
But don't bleeping tell me that they earned it. That is not only outrageous, that is insulting.
Some argue that Wall Street needs those talents to unwind the tangled mess that the whole economy is in. But let's be honest with ourselves: Those are the talents that got us all into this big pile of doodoo. Why do we have to have them around? I just can't believe that those are the only talents alive that can understand what they have created.
If those Wall Street talents don't want to work there anymore, I don't think I would care less.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
2009-03-22
2007-04-24
Toyota Becomes Number One Auto Maker
The story is on the media everywhere: Toyota has taken over General Motors as the number one auto maker of the world. Bad news just keeps coming to Michigan. One would think that the Detroit auto makers are now anxious to change the way they operate. But hearing stories from a friend at Ford, it is business as usual, at least at Ford. Things may be changing on the surface, jobs have been cut. But the real cuts are mostly happening to the labor level.
Hearing Paul Starr, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and its Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, talking about liberalism on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR is refreshing. Liberalism is about progress, not radicalism. The so called conservatives of today are really radical individualists with their private agendas. I guess that there will be a day, when real conservatives will wake up and reclaim the label from GWB and his gang.
Hearing Paul Starr, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and its Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, talking about liberalism on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR is refreshing. Liberalism is about progress, not radicalism. The so called conservatives of today are really radical individualists with their private agendas. I guess that there will be a day, when real conservatives will wake up and reclaim the label from GWB and his gang.
2007-04-19
"School dismissed for day"
School dismissed for day at Gabriel Richard. That is only one of the many stories of school closings on many news media today. Anyone writing Virginia Tech and blah blah is treated as a threat. I agree that they have to, with guns so easily available.
Gun ownership is fine. But making guns easily available for anyone and everyone is not. That logic seems simple, yet it seems to be incomprehensible to some. That is what bothers me.
Gun ownership is fine. But making guns easily available for anyone and everyone is not. That logic seems simple, yet it seems to be incomprehensible to some. That is what bothers me.
2007-04-18
The Killer
Cho Seung-Hui is the killer at VT. Media outlets call him twisted, crazy, madman, etc. That's may not be wrong, but I think they may be missing the point. Bill O'Reilly on Fox News whined about the US being criticized by the rest of the world as a gun paradise and for its gun culture. I think those criticisms need to be taken seriously. Live By The Gun, Die By The Gun is not just a saying. It is what happens.
(By the way, Fox News is the worst media shop I've ever watched, on par with the CCTV channels of the past and Bill O'Reilly is THE spinner of spinners. Unfortunately, CNN is not available in the Dish Network package I have.)
Many of the smart people on TV have been suggesting that the government should have warned the public about the person's mental conditions. Some even imply that he should have been locked up or something. I can't help wondering what kind of smart ideas these people may come up with. People don't think gun ownership should be restricted in any way, and these gurus think people should be casted out if they don't talk to anybody, don't respond to greetings and have been complained by a few others?
Yesterday, there were talks on Fox News about the killer being a Chinese who obtained his visa in Shanghai in October last year. The culprit who started the rumor is said to be Michael Sneed, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist. Fox News doesn't seem to mind at all to spread unchecked news. I guess their concept of news is anything new.
To put things in perspective, 80 some people died in one bombing in a Baghdad market today. Not many media seem to notice that. On the other hand, to his credit, Bill O'Reilly did say in his program that 100 some Iraqi policemen were executed today by the insurgents. But the way he reported that disgusted me. This is the fifth year of US occupying Iraq, he is still trying to make people believe that it is shocking that the insurgents are so cruel. Americas may be naive in 2003 at the beginning of the invasion. US forces may not expect the cruelty of this war back then. After 4 years of occupation, this kind of episodes only mean that the US forces have lost control of Iraq.
(By the way, Fox News is the worst media shop I've ever watched, on par with the CCTV channels of the past and Bill O'Reilly is THE spinner of spinners. Unfortunately, CNN is not available in the Dish Network package I have.)
Many of the smart people on TV have been suggesting that the government should have warned the public about the person's mental conditions. Some even imply that he should have been locked up or something. I can't help wondering what kind of smart ideas these people may come up with. People don't think gun ownership should be restricted in any way, and these gurus think people should be casted out if they don't talk to anybody, don't respond to greetings and have been complained by a few others?
Yesterday, there were talks on Fox News about the killer being a Chinese who obtained his visa in Shanghai in October last year. The culprit who started the rumor is said to be Michael Sneed, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist. Fox News doesn't seem to mind at all to spread unchecked news. I guess their concept of news is anything new.
To put things in perspective, 80 some people died in one bombing in a Baghdad market today. Not many media seem to notice that. On the other hand, to his credit, Bill O'Reilly did say in his program that 100 some Iraqi policemen were executed today by the insurgents. But the way he reported that disgusted me. This is the fifth year of US occupying Iraq, he is still trying to make people believe that it is shocking that the insurgents are so cruel. Americas may be naive in 2003 at the beginning of the invasion. US forces may not expect the cruelty of this war back then. After 4 years of occupation, this kind of episodes only mean that the US forces have lost control of Iraq.
2007-04-17
Shootings at Virginia Tech
The tragedy is all over the news media the whole day. I first heard it on NPR while driving to a work site. 32 were killed. It is labeled the deadliest campus shooting in the US history.
Beyond the tragedy in front of us, I wonder if any surviving family of the victims are opponents to gun control, and if any of them has any change of mind after this tragic day.
I am no fan of government controlling people's lives. But as deadly as they are, guns should not fall into wrong hands. Gun control does not mean people can not own guns either. So many people are so ready to give up liberty when the government comes to them in the name of war against terrorism, yet the same people are not willing to give up the convenience of easy gun ownership. I guess it is a matter of my life against other people's lives: I could care less whether others lose their lives as long as I can live my life my way.
Beyond the tragedy in front of us, I wonder if any surviving family of the victims are opponents to gun control, and if any of them has any change of mind after this tragic day.
I am no fan of government controlling people's lives. But as deadly as they are, guns should not fall into wrong hands. Gun control does not mean people can not own guns either. So many people are so ready to give up liberty when the government comes to them in the name of war against terrorism, yet the same people are not willing to give up the convenience of easy gun ownership. I guess it is a matter of my life against other people's lives: I could care less whether others lose their lives as long as I can live my life my way.
2007-03-04
Reading the News
I don't read news papers everyday as there is just not enough time to do that. Besides, news is available online to the larger part.
It is interesting to read in the Ann Arbor News, right in the middle of the first page, about embryonic stem cell research. I guess it is about time, if Michigan wants another chance of getting out of the woods.
Another article of interest is the Other Voices written by Lynn Howard Ehrle titled Automakers, others need to support universal Medicare. It is interesting because my own thoughts are that health care, just like utilities such as electricity, needs to become universally available with the advances of a society. We could argue that having clean water is a personal responsibility, like many politicians say that health care is. However, if we make that a responsibility, what difference is there between today and the days of Jesus roaming the land of Israel? Today in this country hospitals must care for the sick when they arrive in the doors of an ER. Who is responsible for the cost of providing those care without universal health care? The answer to that question seems to be simple and clear. We might have saved a few bucks on those who never make it to an ER, just like the Bush administration may have saved some money by leaving the New Orleans to their own peril. But I just don't believe that is most Americans want this country to be like.
Just as the article writes, if the auto industry does not have to pay the $1250 per vehicle on health care, they would have saved $10 billion. That alone may not save the industry, but at least it gives them a competitive edge against companies from overseas. The big three of Detroit are hardly the only ones that need that edge.
It is interesting to read in the Ann Arbor News, right in the middle of the first page, about embryonic stem cell research. I guess it is about time, if Michigan wants another chance of getting out of the woods.
Another article of interest is the Other Voices written by Lynn Howard Ehrle titled Automakers, others need to support universal Medicare. It is interesting because my own thoughts are that health care, just like utilities such as electricity, needs to become universally available with the advances of a society. We could argue that having clean water is a personal responsibility, like many politicians say that health care is. However, if we make that a responsibility, what difference is there between today and the days of Jesus roaming the land of Israel? Today in this country hospitals must care for the sick when they arrive in the doors of an ER. Who is responsible for the cost of providing those care without universal health care? The answer to that question seems to be simple and clear. We might have saved a few bucks on those who never make it to an ER, just like the Bush administration may have saved some money by leaving the New Orleans to their own peril. But I just don't believe that is most Americans want this country to be like.
Just as the article writes, if the auto industry does not have to pay the $1250 per vehicle on health care, they would have saved $10 billion. That alone may not save the industry, but at least it gives them a competitive edge against companies from overseas. The big three of Detroit are hardly the only ones that need that edge.
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