SOMETHING YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DO TODAY!

Once again, an email bulletin has brought a vital issue to my attention (which is why I suggest that you all sign up for such bulletins -- start here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/

THIS ONE IS ABOUT CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING IN THE UNITED STATES!

Sign this petition to have important legislation relating to this abomination passed:
http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AF3gg/zKjA/R9Nx


Here's the email I received:

"Hi Adrian,

You might be surprised to learn that the main target for trafficking within the U.S. isn't foreign women. According to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the group that is most harmed is 'home-grown runaway kids.'

Sadly, Kristof is serious when he uses the word 'kids.' The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14.

Right now, there is legislation in Congress that would fund local initiatives to combat human trafficking and support the crime's victims and survivors.

Ask Congress to pass this legislation and confront the problem of domestic sex trafficking head on.

Thanks for taking action!

Samer
ThePetitionSite"

This won't wait. Put your weekend on hold for a single minute and sign this petition. If we don't do everything in our power to protect kids, then what the hell are we?

This is a blight. A horror. And like all horrors, it must be faced.

Obviously, prevention is always better than cure. Talk to your kids about staying safe and what to do if they are approached by strangers.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/09/10/children_are_own_best_defense_against_kidnapping_study_says/?s_campaign=8315

This is the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children:
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US& Take a look at it!


Take care, and take care of ALL kids,
Adrian Zupp
PS: If you ever see a suspicious situation involving an adult and a child, intervene: safely. If it's in a mall, get a security guard. In another public place with no security personnel, ask another adult to approach the situation with you -- you could start by eavesdropping. Or just call the cops. Even if you're wrong, it's better than being right and doing nothing. Anyone so gutless or pathetic or self-absorbed to say "I don't want to get involved" is a waste of good oxygen in my book.

YOU MIGHT ALSO TAKE A LOOK AT THIS BLOG POST ABOUT CARING FOR ALL CHILDREN

THE GROSS MISCONDUCT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

I was surfing around for places to mention this blog and build an audience. I hopped over to The New York Times (the so-called "paper of record") and found a blog there called "The Conscience of a Liberal" written by Paul Krugman.

His current blog topic is entitled: "Did the Postwar System Fail?: We could have gone on with a more progressive tax system and a stronger labor movement."

The thrust of the piece was a lot of brow wiping about which administration the American economy was strongest under and the why's and wherefore's. A brief comparative analysis from the view of someone who probably hasn't been hungry a day in his life. Or if he has, has a short memory.

There were 136 comments. I added mine -- we'll see if they run it. Here it is in full:


Your Submitted Comments
Display Name

Adrian Zupp
Location

Las Vegas, Nevada
Comment

The economic system is always failing someone! We talk about downturns and crashes, recessions and stock plunges, but for a huge portion of the American (and global) population, life is one long downturn. All this speculative guff about whether "we" were better off during the Carter era or when some other venal quarterwit was in power is basically for people who at least know what disposable income is. If we are to develop an economy that is inclusive and functions in a humane way, we need to stop all the academic hokey pokey and dig a little deeper. Dare to color outside the lines and speak up! The kind of armchair speculation in this article is the luxury of those who, for the most part, know nothing of profound, long-term hardship. Wake up! I invite anyone who reads this to join my blog:
"House On Fire: Thoughts on Saving the World" at http://adrianzupp.blogspot.com/
Take care,
Adrian Zupp


It's almost laughable that Krugman writes: "Which all goes to show just how thoroughly almost everyone has been indoctrinated by the current orthodoxy." It would be a profound statement if he weren't talking within such limited parameters and exhibiting such a myopic intellect. But then again, these are the "radical" types The New York Times puts on the payroll to show us how balanced and unbiased the paper is.

It's the same old thing in the media: Articles about tinkering with the current system while the same people continue to suffer are passed off as serious economic commentary. This is why we need radical change. And do not fear the word "radical." It means "root" -- as in going to the root of the problem. (Krugman co-opts the word when he has no business doing so whatsoever: "Radical change happened because a powerful political movement wanted it, not out of economic necessity.")

Thanks so much for reading -- and never hesitate to take a swipe at The New York Times or any of the other sacred cows of the media.

They are not to be awed.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at FDR's SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS.

Economic Crisis Update

Luckily the Chancellor Gordon Brown and the Deputy Chancellor Alistair Darling have kept on top of events since, led from the front and not looked like rabbits caught in headlights; There is no shubshitite fur eshperience ash Ghordon ofthen sheys!


A financial crisis unmatched since the Great Depression, say analysts

Guardian, London, March 18th 2008

A century after John Pierpont Morgan rescued the New York stockmarket from a 50% sell off in share prices, his blue-blooded Wall Street bank was yesterday once again at the heart of attempts to contain the deepening global financial crisis.

In an echo of the "bankers' panic" of 1907, JP Morgan responded to what is being billed as a meltdown of historic proportions by agreeing to buy its stricken rival, Bear Stearns.

The length and severity of the crisis that broke over global markets last summer has had analysts delving into their history books. George Soros, who was largely responsible for Black Wednesday, the last bout of serious financial turmoil to afflict the UK, believes there has been nothing to match the events of the past nine months since the Great Depression.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Fed and the man blamed by many for setting off the boom-bust in the US housing market, agrees with the man who broke the Bank of England. Writing in the Financial Times yesterday, Greenspan said: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

The first 25 years after the war were relatively trouble free. Britain had devalued the pound in 1949 and 1967, but the first real systemic threat to the financial system arrived in 1973 with the secondary banking crisis that affected the "fringe banks" that had provided money to speculators during the property boom. When the crash came, the Bank of England launched a "lifeboat" to prevent the crisis spreading.

Similar action by the Federal Reserve in 1998 contained the fallout from the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that lost money in the aftermath of Russia's decision to default on its debts. By comparison with recent events, LTCM now seems to be a minor market wobble.

Students of the markets say the only recent parallel with the current turmoil is Japan in the 1990s, but other than that they have had to study the 1930s, when 9,000 banks failed, 1907 when JP Morgan told Wall Street enough was enough after a 50% drop in shares, and even to the series of economic and financial upheavals during the final quarter of the 19th century.

New York Fed Warns On Hedge Funds

New York Times - May 3, 2007

In what Reuters describes as its “sternest warning to date” on the state of the hedge-fund business, the New York Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the funds could represent the biggest risk for a financial crisis since 1998, when the implosion of Long-Term Capital Management threatened global markets.

“Recent high correlations among hedge fund returns could suggest concentrations of risk comparable to those preceding the hedge fund crisis of 1998,” according to a paper written by Tobias Adrian, capital markets economist at the central bank.

Regulation — or lack thereof — of the $1.4 trillion industry has become a battle ground for regulators and lawmakers. The meltdown of Long-Term Capital is often cited as a cautionary tale by those arguing for more oversight of the lightly-regulated investment pools. The crisis at Long-Term Capital took the market by surprise and resulted in The Fed forcing an unprecedented $3.6 billion bailout.

The Fed’s latest worry arose from what it described as a rising correlation between the actual returns of hedge funds, which could point to similar trading strategies that excessively concentrate risk on too few market positions.

Economic Crisis Update

Luckily the Chancellor Gordon Brown and the Deputy Chancellor Alistair Darling have kept on top of events since, led from the front and not looked like rabbits caught in headlights; There is no shubshitite fur eshperience ash Ghordon ofthen sheys!


A financial crisis unmatched since the Great Depression, say analysts

Guardian, London, March 18th 2008

A century after John Pierpont Morgan rescued the New York stockmarket from a 50% sell off in share prices, his blue-blooded Wall Street bank was yesterday once again at the heart of attempts to contain the deepening global financial crisis.

In an echo of the "bankers' panic" of 1907, JP Morgan responded to what is being billed as a meltdown of historic proportions by agreeing to buy its stricken rival, Bear Stearns.

The length and severity of the crisis that broke over global markets last summer has had analysts delving into their history books. George Soros, who was largely responsible for Black Wednesday, the last bout of serious financial turmoil to afflict the UK, believes there has been nothing to match the events of the past nine months since the Great Depression.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Fed and the man blamed by many for setting off the boom-bust in the US housing market, agrees with the man who broke the Bank of England. Writing in the Financial Times yesterday, Greenspan said: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

The first 25 years after the war were relatively trouble free. Britain had devalued the pound in 1949 and 1967, but the first real systemic threat to the financial system arrived in 1973 with the secondary banking crisis that affected the "fringe banks" that had provided money to speculators during the property boom. When the crash came, the Bank of England launched a "lifeboat" to prevent the crisis spreading.

Similar action by the Federal Reserve in 1998 contained the fallout from the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that lost money in the aftermath of Russia's decision to default on its debts. By comparison with recent events, LTCM now seems to be a minor market wobble.

Students of the markets say the only recent parallel with the current turmoil is Japan in the 1990s, but other than that they have had to study the 1930s, when 9,000 banks failed, 1907 when JP Morgan told Wall Street enough was enough after a 50% drop in shares, and even to the series of economic and financial upheavals during the final quarter of the 19th century.

New York Fed Warns On Hedge Funds

New York Times - May 3, 2007

In what Reuters describes as its “sternest warning to date” on the state of the hedge-fund business, the New York Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the funds could represent the biggest risk for a financial crisis since 1998, when the implosion of Long-Term Capital Management threatened global markets.

“Recent high correlations among hedge fund returns could suggest concentrations of risk comparable to those preceding the hedge fund crisis of 1998,” according to a paper written by Tobias Adrian, capital markets economist at the central bank.

Regulation — or lack thereof — of the $1.4 trillion industry has become a battle ground for regulators and lawmakers. The meltdown of Long-Term Capital is often cited as a cautionary tale by those arguing for more oversight of the lightly-regulated investment pools. The crisis at Long-Term Capital took the market by surprise and resulted in The Fed forcing an unprecedented $3.6 billion bailout.

The Fed’s latest worry arose from what it described as a rising correlation between the actual returns of hedge funds, which could point to similar trading strategies that excessively concentrate risk on too few market positions.