Bruce Schneier posted this article about taser proof clothes on his blog. This will be great for defeating any urban dwellers armed with a Scorpion. That is until they use the pepper-spray end on you, or, god forbid, the Wasp they keep on their utility belt.

It’s weird cuz I keep hearing these so what qualified pondits say it was his best debate yet, but honestly, between you and me, you know us honest ones who live in the creases between media, it sure looked like Obama stomped the fuck out of that sweet but obsolete old man.

God bless them both, cuz, well, we all dying faster and faster all the time. Take me slowly please.

Sometimes a thing is so awesome I must forgo my BoingBoing policy.

In the clip I posted the other day of John and Yoko, John Lennon made a passing reference to a Chinese book Yoko turned him onto about war. In it he paraphrased that “if your castle is being attacked, lock all your doors but one, that way you know where your enemies will enter”. I thought this was a fantastic piece wisdom especially in how Lennon was using it as the reason for wearing his hair long.

I have turned this sage advice over and over in my head for the past few days and, in light of this, I’ve come upon at least one application of our present circumstances that I can’t help feel a bit uneasy about.

If you venture with me in so far as to make the fairly extensible stretch that our government has successfully been taken over by a well articulated conspiracy of the few where the goal is to bankrupt the people for the ends of a greater mechanism of control and deeper reservoir of invasive protocol through the implementation of a well considered single party system existing under the auspice of a two party struggle, than wouldn’t Sarah Palin be the finest door to leave open in this our present battles?

I mean if we’re being honest we can see that the McCain agenda varies only slightly from the Obama concerns. Neither is calling for peace in our modern world (and frankly, as an aside, I’m very comfortable with that… but let’s continue with our War Games here), both were strongly in favor of the greatest socialist effort in human history with the government bail outs, both are outspoken about their interests in nuclear energy and coastal drilling, both are in support and have been in support of continued invasion of U.S. citizen’s privacy. And both, unflinchingly, are working to trump up Russia’s roll in it’s ongoing - and many would argue, justified - struggle with Georgia.

So many Obama supporters - of which, outside of this scenario, I now firmly and enthusiastically count myself among - are projecting so much of their liberal idealism on the guy that they can’t seem to notice that, ultimately, an Obama presidency will change very little about how our government conducts itself financially and militarily, at home and abroad.

If I was running a theoretical oligarchical conspiracy I could see a candidate like Obama being just the note I needed to play at this time. As national support for my military campaigns continue to decelerate into one of the most unpopular presidencies in history a candidate so completely anti-thetical to everything the current rogue administration has put forward - so seemingly young, new, intelligent and compassionate, so able to galvanize the American people into a fury of elated support on the “Anything But” ticket - is just what the doctor ordered. For an inky underworld shadow-government of a proud, rich few, Barack Obama could be the ideal candidate.

And, as anyone who has read any good super hero tomes or religious screeds will know; a great hero needs an even greater enemy. And, let there be no words minced about this cunt Sarah Palin is the greatest enemy our country’s presidential races has ever grown. She is the Moriarity to Obama’s Holmes, the Joker to Obama’s Batman (eww, sorry Joker), the Satan to Obama’s Christ, the mean spirited Lucy to Obama’s very earnest Charlie Brown.

So as we see the nationalization of our banks and the federal government taking control over our economic system and as we continue to extend ourselves militarily to a point of both depleting our national resource of military and foreign relations, as we see state’s unemployment rates sky-rocketing and running out of money of employment programs, as we see a country and a world spiraling farther and farther out of control leaving the theatrics of the solution to the dim scripting of simply softening the fall for only the wealthiest involved, perhaps it is time we begin looking at this entire scenario as a war against humanity by a conspiracy of the few. And perhaps we should start looking at what is happening under the terms of war strategies and how those strategies are being used against us to further a rather telegraphed agenda. And perhaps, as we look at our national and planetary narrative unfold in an increasingly predictable, frustrating, and destructive fashion, we should keep our eyes a little more keenly pried for where the open door may be. And practice caution before haste as we trip over our future to run right through it.

Douglas Rushkoff’s offering the same advice I sent up about 2 months ago in a post on this here blog: buy gold. The short answer is because as all these country’s print money to bail out their banks all of those currencies will decrease in value.

“But in a contracting global economy, I think the object of the game is to find things that are going down in value less rapidly than everything else. Gold may not be productive, but it may have certain ‘brakes’ on its decline in value that declining, formerly productive assets don’t.”

Read the long version right, cheeyar…

Just heard a great interview on NPR’s Planet Money with trader Vinny Catalano that shed some light on current our economic woes. Apparently we shouldn’t be watching the DOW average, we should keep our eyes on the credit market.

The credit markets, specifically the commercial paper markets, are frozen and that’s effecting business’s ability to operate. This disruption of day to day operation is lowering investor confidence in business which in turn is causing the DOW drop.

As long as the credit market is frozen the DOW will continue to drop.

There are two indicators to watch to see if the credit market is thawing out. One is the US Treasury Bill 3 month yield rate. As this rate goes up that means less money is being hidden in the giant government “mattress” and is again available for lending. The other factor is something called the TED Spread which tracks the LIBOR less the 3 month Treasury Bill. As this number goes down that means that banks are beginning to lend to each other and the credit market is thawing.

So keep an eye on the 3 month T-Bill, as that rate goes up and the Ted spread goes down then we know capital and credit are flowing again. At this point the Stock market should rebound and we should be out of the woods. Make money make money makemoneymonay!

Listen to the Planet Money show here.

Read Catalano’s Blog about this here.

Track the TED Spread here.

Track the 13 week treasury bills here.

John McCain canceled his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. In a personal phone call to Dave he gave this reason: We gotta go save the country! Apparently he was supposed to immediately fly back to Washington to get to the bottom of the economic mess we’re in. Instead, he stayed in New York and got himself interviewed by Katie Couric. This makes his actions surrounding “saving the economy” seem more than a little bit political.

Here’s Dave tearing McCain a new one. Enjoy:

I know very little about what is going on with the economy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize a reckless and repeatable pattern in the people trying to sell us a solution.

How does the proposal help Joe and Mary Sixpack who can afford their current monthly payment, but not the increased interest rate that has been or soon will take effect? Every day bankers work out loans with customers — so why are taxpayers being asked to act when banks are largely on strike, refusing to negotiate revised deals with many loan customers?

How about interviewing small landlords who were drawn into these toxic loans. Are banks negotiating with them? If not it means more foreclosures and renters who had nothing to do with this being evicted. Ask why banks are refusing (landlords I spoke to said they are) to negotiate with small landlords.

What steps are being taken to take back bonuses, fees and other compensation from the folks who got rich selling toxic mortgages and illiquid investments that Secretary Paulsen claims are threatening the whole system.

How will adding $700 billion to the national debt ease strains on the credit markets?

I’m happy we’re seeing some of Congress a bit slower to take the bait on this crisis, I wish there would be more in the media that would practice some skepticism similar to that found in this article.