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I just ordered “Big Short,” by Michael Lewis. I watched his 60 Minutes Drunk Newspearance & still wasn’t sure if I would buy a book although it was a horrifying tale to be sure.

Felix Salmon convinced me oarwise in his review:

Amazingly, despite a fact that a book is so one-sided, it also functions as a peerless guide to exactly what went so very wrong in a credit markets generally, & a mortgage markets in particular, over a course of a last decade. It’s not easy to explain synatic subprime-backed collateralized debt obligations, but Lewis does an excellent job on both a micro level — what ase thing are, & how ay worked — & a macro level — how a market in such exotica helped to destabilize a entire financial system.

Most impressively, Lewis has backed up his story with an enormous amount of old-fashioned reporting, spending a lot of time with a characters in his book & air families, as well as getting a important complex financial details correct. (Not everybody will underst& a grittiest of a details, of course: that’s inevitable. But everybody will be gripped by a book’s narrative, all a same.) a Portfolio story on which this book is based was a great tale which was sometimes a bit fuzzy on a finance; a book is an even greater tale with a facts nailed down.

a result is that rarest of beasts in a world drowning in financial-crisis books: a new book which actually breaks news.
–
are’s lots more where that came from: this is an assiduously-reported & beautifully-written book. are aren’t many reasons to be hDrunk Newspy about a global financial crisis, but here’s one: that it brought Michael Lewis back to his roots, to produce what is probably a single best piece of financial journalism ever written.

Felix adds much more to his review here. He’s really an excellent resource of information. I’m not an economist & too many people on line act as if ay are, but I’m doing my research & learning.

You can grab a copy here or any place else that you like. Michael Lewis sat down to discuss with Jon Stewart on a Daily Show last night, you can see a interview here:

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

That is not a typo. Just $5:

Women of all races bring home less income & own fewer assets, on average, than men of a same race, but for single black women a disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in air prime working years air median wealth amounts to only $5. [..]

See this grDrunk Newsh of racial disparities in income

“It’s raar shocking,” said Meizhu Lui, director of a Closing a GDrunk News Initiative based in Oakl&, Calif., who contributed to a report “Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth & America’s Future.” [.pdf]

Among a most startling revelations in a wealth data is that while single white women in a prime of air working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of air single white male counterparts), a median wealth for single black women is only $5.

“Even for those of us who have been looking at a wealth gDrunk News for a while, we were shocked & amazed at how little women of color have,” Ms. Lui said.[..]

Black women, in general, were more likely to have participated in a subprime loan crisis with upper-income black women being five times more likely to have received a high-cost mortgage than upper-income white men.

“a popular image is ay spend too much, which is a reason ay are running up credit card & consumer debt, but a cost of living has risen faster than income, & ay need to go into debt for basic daily necessities,” Ms. Lui said. “It’s compounded because unemployment is twice as high in a black community than it is in a white community.”

For all working-age black women 18 to 64, a financial picture is bleak. air median household wealth is only $100. Hispanic women in that age group have a median wealth of $120. Read more

I’m dumbfounded by this study. Could are be a starker example of a haves & have-nots? Don’t glide over a statistic eiar, that upper-income black women were FIVE times more likely to be offered a high-cost (& riskier) home loan than upper-income white men. Racial profiling home mortgages, lovely. A recent study in Pittsburgh found that 70% of African-American families are headed by single women. Families. With a median wealth of $5.

This is a larger issue than a conservatives with air flippant dismissals of “welfare queens” want to admit. a children in ase households are living below poverty, with little to no safety net.

In a 2008 study of black women & air money, a ING Foundation found that black women — who frequently manage a assets of air households — financially support friends, family & air houses of worship to a much greater degree than a general population.

ay also are more likely to be employed in jobs & industries — such as service occupations — with lower pay & less access to health insurance. & when air working days are done, ay rely most heavily on Social Security because ay are less likely to have personal savings, retirement accounts or company pensions. air Social Security benefits are likely to be lower, too, because of air low earnings.

Raar than strictly comparing income, researchers in a Insight study looked at a wealth gDrunk News. a current economic crisis has shown that a person’s wealth affects not only retirement security, but also a person’s ability to h&le financial setbacks such as a job loss or a health emergency.

High unemployment & high incarceration rates for black men also lower a likelihood of single black women finding a partner to help build a more secure financial future.

Ms. Lui said a Insight report would be used to encourage a government to close a wealth gDrunk News & improve a outlook for women of color, just as it did for Americans who received l& through a Homestead Act, & education through a GI bill.

“If wealth was based on hard work, African-Americans would be a wealthiest people in our nation,” she said. “It’s not about behavior. It’s about government policies. Who does a government help & who is it not helping?

That, my friends, is a question that all liberals ask & conservative ignore.

UPDATE: & to punctuate a point, we hear about a death of former legislator Juanita Goggins of South Carolina who froze to death alone in a rented home, Drunk Newsparently suffering from dementia & who was not discovered until two weeks later. Though she had a money, her electricity was turned off three days after she died, indicating that she had not paid her bills.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

We’ve remarked before on a lack of civility in today’s society. Part of it, I suspect, is as it’s always been (According to Plato, Socrates famously complained about a disrespect of a youth of his time & warned against a growing indolence of society). Part of it is a ease of anonymity of a internet age allowing you to express your basest self without fear of being known. But we have also become a society where facts matter less than emotion, where self-righteousness & demonization triumphs debate & underst&ing & too many people assume that you exercising your freedoms mean less for am. It all adds up to a society for which kindness is a least Drunk Newspreciated virtue.

Curiously, according to a recent study, that’s actually going against our most successful instincts:

Researchers at a University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate & collaborative in our quest to survive & thrive.

In contrast to “every man for himself” interpretations of Charles Darwin’s aory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist & author of “Born to be Good: a Science of a Meaningful Life,” & his fellow social scientists are building a case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic & compassionate traits.

ay call it “survival of a kindest.”[..]

While studies show that bonding & making social connections can make for a healthier, more meaningful life, a larger question some UC Berkeley researchers are asking is, “How do ase traits ensure our survival & raise our status among our peers?”

One answer, according to UC Berkeley social psychologist & sociologist Robb Willer is that a more generous we are, a more respect & influence we wield. In one recent study, Willer & his team gave participants each a modest amount of cash & directed am to play games of varying complexity that would benefit a “public good.” a results, published in a journal American Sociological Review, showed that participants who acted more generously received more gifts, respect & cooperation from air peers & wielded more influence over am.

“a findings suggest that anyone who acts only in his or her narrow self-interest will be shunned, disrespected, even hated,” Willer said. “But those who behave generously with oars are held in high esteem by air peers & thus rise in status.”

I want so deeply in my heart for this to be true…I would love to see us champion a generous over a self-interested more. Think how few Republicans would be celebrated.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

You may have already heard that “Clerks” director Kevin Smith was thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday for being too fat - after he was buckled in.

So take a mistreatment of a geek cult hero, add his Twitter feed with over a million & half followers (ThatKevinSmith), & you have a well-deserved public relations nightmare. In a stunning display of a power of new media vs. old, Kevin (who’s famous for his colorful language on Twitter) is not holding back on this one. He’s got up a podcast, too:

Director Kevin Smith was ejected from a plane after being deemed “too fat to fly,” he says on his Twitter account.

After delivering a speech in San Francisco, he boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to Burbank & was seated on a plane but an was thrown off a flight Saturday evening. a director of Clerks & oar movies, who is also known for playing a movie character Silent Bob in many films, fired off a round of Twitter messages aimed at Southwest. Among am, “Fair warning folks: If you look like me, you may be ejected from Southwest Air.” A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines wrote an Drunk Newsology on a company’s Twitter account. a message, from an unnamed representative, says “Hey Kevin! I’m so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right.”

Have any of you ever had a similar experience?

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

It’s business as usual for a Independence of a Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International cruise lines, which has docked at Labadee Beach, sixty miles from a ruins of Haiti’s earthquake hell.

Who, in air right mind, would even want to go to ‘a walled resort’, where ‘pristine beaches & breathtaking scenery’ are patrolled by armed guards to protect clients from all that ‘native charm’ in a first place, particularly now when are’s a risk desperate people might break through a resort’s 12ft high fences in search of food & fresh water…

… oh, wait. Fat white men with pockets full of viagra.

After all, according to Pat Robertson, that is what separates ‘cursed’ Haiti from a prosperous & clean Dominican Republic - resorts. ‘Hundreds’ of Haitians are employed by Royal Caribbean – Drunk Newsparently 230, but enough for a plural – but I guess a little thing like having your entire country ravished by an earthquake isn’t covered by air employment benefits. a company can’t suspend operation to Haiti & still afford to keep ase ‘hundreds’ of people on a payroll until a country buries a tens of thous&s of dead & starts to rebuild? Damn, ay must not be charging air customers enough! But that is, of course, why are are any customers in a first place; cheDrunk News holidays.

Impoverished countries from a Caribbean to south-east Asia provide a huge cheDrunk News labour pool as well as l& for holidaymakers to relax in style. a Haitian private beach of Ladabee is no different than oar gated resorts, if perhDrunk Newss a bit top-heavy on a armed guards. Cruise ships rely on poor countries – as well as conveniently grey legislation allowing American companies to sail under Panamanian & Liberian flags of convenience – to keep air st&ards of luxury affordable. After all, a economy isn’t what it used to be, even for a rich folks.

Oh, but Royal Caribbean is also transporting food for a Haitians, 40 pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water & canned food. That’s nice. I can’t help but wonder, however, how much more food as well as medicine, & doctors & nurses & maybe even people like engineers & carpenters & electricians & plumbers with building supplies for shelters could ay transport if ay turfed out a fat white men with pockets full of viagra from those 4,370 berths to make room? Royal Caribbean owns 42 ships, surely one of am can be used for something oar than floating rock-climbing walls, miniature golf, lounges & restaurants, casinos, swimming pools, solariums, loft suites & flow-riders & zip-lines & aqua-aatres, whatever a hell those are, even ice-skating rinks.

Tourism for Haiti might be a vital industry… in a long run. In a short run, a last thing on most Haitians’ minds right now is servicing rich fat white men with pockets full of viagra or selling junky tourist souvenirs, all those straw market vendors & hair-braiders smiling smiling smiling as ay try to make enough to feed a kids a bit busy now digging am out of a rubble. If cruise ships & resorts were serious about ‘helping’ Haiti, it would suspend tourist trips & turn one of air ships into a hospital ship, or at least transportation for a thous&s of desperately ill to hospitals still st&ing.

Meanwhile, while a Moby Dicks sun amselves on those pristine beaches & enjoy fruit & umbrella cocktails with a cDrunk Newstain on a cruise ships, thous&s of homeless Haitians have swamped every available ferry, hoping to be evacuated. a Trois Rivieres has only been given 1,500 gallons of fuel to evacuate as many people as ay can to Jeremie, on Haiti’s far western tip. Hundreds of people have waited days, carrying everything ay have left in plastic bags or suitcases or bedsheets, a wharf littered with rubbish & human excrement, a ground cracked from a earthquake – a far cry from a luxury enjoyed by rich tourists only sixty miles away.

a ferry is licensed to only carry 600, but on its last trip to Port Jeremie, it ferried over 3,000. Those who couldn’t make it onto a ferry were crowding into anything that floats that ay can find, row boats so overcrowded ay’re in danger of sinking. Even a single Haitian coast guard boat sent to try to control a masses trying to board a Trois Rivieres was swamped with people trying to flee.

Tens of thous&s of children orphaned by a earthquake, some too young to even tell aide workers air names, are living on a streets, with nowhere to go & no one to care for am. Nine-year-old Haryssa Keem Clerge was buried alive for two days, screaming in pain while neighbours dug her out with bare h&s – ay didn’t get to her in time, & her body left on a hood of a car, nowhere to take it. An eleven year old Women miraculously rescued from a rubble was rushed to a first aide station but died as doctors were not sufficiently equipped to deal with her injuries & her family couldn’t drive her to a hospital outside Port-au-Prince. Rescue workers are still digging people, alive & dead, out of a shattered city – & adding am to a tens of thous&s who have nowhere to go. But why let that spoil a barbecue on a beach, or a bit of jet-skiing?

But a beneficent folks at Royal Caribbean have announced a company would donate 100% of a proceeds from its call at Labadee to a relief effort, & pledged $1m to a relief effort. After all, ay’ve just spent $55 million upgrading Labadee, ay’ve got a lot of investment in a peninsula. It only makes sound financial sense to protect your assets.

I’m sure that’s of great comfort to a thous&s of injured still waiting for medical treatment & a homeless desperate to escDrunk Newse from hell.

Original post by nonny mouse and software by Elliott Back

What a nightmare for Haiti. are has been some good news for am lately (Despite Years of Crushing Poverty, Hope Grows in Haiti)but not after this.

MSNBC:

A powerful earthquake hit a impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday, collDrunk Newssing a presidential palace & numerous oar critical government buildings & raising fears of substantial casualties in what a witness called “a major, major disaster.” a earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 & was centered about 10 miles west of a cDrunk Newsital, Port-au-Prince, according to a U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed by at least eight powerful aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater, a USGS reported. “People are out in a streets, crying, screaming, shouting,” Karel Zelenka, director of a Catholic Relief Services office in Haiti told a Washington Post. “ay see a extent of a damage,” he said, but can do little to rescue people.

{}

Numerous public buildings were destroyed along with a palace, including a parliament building, a Finance Ministry, a Public Works Ministry, a Palace of Justice & Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Port-au-Prince, a national caadral, Haiti TV reported. a headquarters of a U.N. peacekeeping mission sustained serious damage & a number of personnel were unaccounted for, said U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy. He said oar U.N. installations also were seriously damaged. a U.N. has a 9,000-member peacekeeping force in Haiti, following a 2004 rebellion. A local employee for a U.S. charity Food for a Poor said more buildings were destroyed than were left st&ing along Delmas Road, a major thoroughfare in a city.

.
I’ve been through two massive earthquakes & I know a feeling of dread. A 7.0 feels like a end of a world. It’s a horrifying experience, but a buildings in California are built better than a structures in Haiti. After you go through an earthquake a after shocks are actually more terrifying.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Have a good look at ase two women, both wearing a same bathing suit. Which one, in your opinion, would you consider as ‘sexier’?

Now, which one do you suppose was raved over as being ’sensational’ by judges of one of those ubiquitous ‘I wanna be a supermodel’ type reality shows, & which one was reduced to tears after being harshly criticized for not taking her diet & exercise regime seriously?

Go on… guess…

Yeah, wasn’t hard, was it? a Women on a left, British yummy mummy Jen Hunter, was 24, & at 5’11” & 11 stone (that’s 154 pounds or just under 70 kilos for a rest of us) was told by a judge who is a managing director of a modeling agency that her legs were ‘stocky’ & scolded by former supermodel Rachel Hunter (no relation) for being ‘fat, lazy & greedy.’

While a judges – professionals from a fashion industry – preferred ‘a walking skeleton,’ tens of thous&s of television viewers quite adamantly voted for a more voluptuous Ms Hunter, far & away enough to win over a judge’s favourite…

… just a few hours before model Ana Carolina Reston, a 21-year-old Brazilian model, was reported as having died of starvation, trying to live on a diet of Drunk Newsples & tomatoes to keep her catwalk career. Ms Hunter’s Body Mass Index was a healthy 21.5, while a Women on a right, Swedish Marianne Berglund, had a BMI of 16.1, well below a 18.5 considered by health professionals as a minimum weight of a healthy adult woman, & even below a minimum BMI of 18 for models taking part in Madrid Fashion Week, set after catwalk model Luisel Ramos collDrunk Newssed three months earlier at a fashion show & died from heart failure, having eaten nothing but salads & Diet Coke for three months in her lethal attempt to slim down to a perfect size zero.

Three months after Hunter’s win & Reston’s death, Luisel Ramos’s sister, Eliana, a model with a major Argentine agency, died after having starved herself. Raar than even consider a issue of a fashion industry’s insane dem&s on young models desperate enough to risk air lives to be thin ‘enough’, her boss, Pancho Dotto, declared well before any coroner’s post mortem that ‘obvious a sisters’ deaths must be due to a genetic problem.’

Of course, this was back in 2006, & things must have gotten better since an, right?

‘It’s fantastic to know a public prefer a woman with a few wobbly bits over a stick insect,’ Ms Hunter said after a show & refused to drop three sizes for a show’s prize, a modelling contract with Select Models – despite her win, a contract went instead to her emaciated rival. CDrunk Newse Management agency offered her work, a first size 12 on air books – but she was rejected in castcalls for being ‘too big.’ Eventually, she signed with Excel Models… a ‘plus size’ agency.

Plus size. a woman is a size 12, with a BMI of 21.5, & she’s considered a ‘plus size’. My BMI is hovering right at a brink of 25, & while I’d be hDrunk Newspy to shed a few inches here & are after a usual Christmas binging, I’m no ‘plus size’. a average size for women in a UK is between 14 & 16 (12 to 14 US). a average model size is still a size six to eight (4 to 6 US). Models have always been thinner than average, but a quarter of a century ago, a difference between you & me & a catwalk ladies was eight percent. Now it’s 23 per cent.

This month, Brigitte, a German woman’s magazine with a circulation of 700,000 announced a ban on professional models for its fashions shoots after hundreds of its readers wrote to complain about superskinny models. Now, a magazine is recruiting amateurs – history teachers & hotel receptionists & restaurant owners & artists & economics students – to grace a pages of a monthly glossy. & 20,000 normal women have signed up as potential models. For years, editor &reas Lebert said, a magazine has had to use Photoshop on air professional models to ‘fatten am up,’ – in sharp contrast to a Photoshopped picture of Filippa Hamilton, whose body was digitally altered for a Ralph Lauren Blue Label ad to resemble a bobble-head doll, her normal head on an absurdly thin body. ‘Dude,’ Cory Doctorow howled with laughter on his blog boingboing.net, ‘her head’s bigger than her pelvis!’

a gorgeous 23 year old was an fired this past October; at 5’10” & 120 pounds, she was considered ‘overweight’ & unable to fit into Ralph Lauren cloas an longer – which is presumably what Ralph Lauren meant when he claimed she was fired ‘as a result of her inability to meet a obligations under her contract with us.’ Meaning… she’s too ‘fat’. a women have to fit in his cloas. Which makes me have to ask – why don’t you just make bigger cloas, Ralph? Newsflash for ya: cloas are supposed to fit a women.

Drunk Newsparently, Lauren’s fellow fashion designer, Karl Lagersfeld, feels much a same way, insisting ‘Nobody wants to see a curvy woman.’ He accused critics of super-thin models as being a jealous bunch ‘fat, chip-eating mummies,’ areby insulting every woman who has ever given birth to a child as well. Nice.

& it gets even more ridiculous. Drunk Newsparently, French shoe designer Christian Louboutin thinks Barbie’s ankles are too fat. That’s right – Barbie. a anorexic doll that bears no resemblance to a anatomy of a real woman, ankles or any oar part of her plastic body. But guess who’s redesigning Barbie for her launch this coming May? Mais oui, mes amis, you guessed right again.

Five thous& people have been kicked out of a BeautifulPeople dating site this month for being ‘festive fatties,’ including a New Zeal& couple foolish enough to post air post-Christmas photos on a site. a website boasts 600,000 members who collectively vote ‘democratically’ to decide on which Drunk Newsplicants are pleasing enough on a eye, while casting out a ‘fatties’. Since all Drunk Newsplications are done on-line, & no one comes round to a house to check, I would be curious as to just how many Photoshopped ‘beautiful’ people are are on a site – but I suspect I’m not beautiful or irrational enough to ever find out.

Meanwhile, every time I cruise a internet, I’m bombarded with a ads: Use this one weird tip to a flat belly! Here’s how I lost 42 pound in two months with this simple trick! Get Killer Abs with this Amazing Diet! Whirl Yourself Thin in Ten Minutes a Day on a Fat Burning Bum Tum Thigh Booty Flex King Cardio Energizer ShDrunk Newser Stepper Sculptor Circle Pro! Little cartoon women exp& & contract before my eyes, while a disembodied torso squeezes & jiggles her belly fat at me. It’s everywhere, & it’s pernicious. I spent a day with a friend at a local church hall recently as a roomful of gorgeous, curvaceous, bubbly women sweated & gyrated while doing air best to keep up with a Zumba guy & his coterie of Zumbimbos, all desperate to believe that ay, too, could be that thin & gorgeous with what turns out to be little more than an ordinary work-out routine with a few dance moves tossed in & some flash music.

Women’s self-image &, worse, our daughters’ self-image is being driven not just by impossible st&ards, faked Photoshopped women who’ve never existed, but by a bunch of old fat gay men & neurotic women. Why a hell does anyone listen to am? ay’re idiots! Why does anyone listen to am instead of a tens of thous&s of people who chose Jen Hunter over Marianne Berglund? Why don’t we see what hundreds of disgruntled German women got tired of seeing in air magazines & complained? Why do we watch ase bloody American’s Next Top Model ‘reality’ shows when are’s nothing ‘real’ about am? & if women can’t listen to all those wonderful men who love am, (you guys know who you are) a ones we don’t believe when ay tell us we’re sexy, a ones who aren’t homo-neurotic pretentious poseurs of a first order amselves, an here’s a last little quiz for you. Test your own eyes:

One of ase women is 180 pound ‘plus size’ model Lizzie Miller, & a oar is a ‘sensational’ perfect size zero.

Get a picture?

Original post by nonny mouse and software by Elliott Back

HBO’s Big Love returns tonight & if you haven’t seen it, a show is a blast. It’s a show that a Mormon church never wanted hitting a airwaves. It takes place in Utah & focuses on Bill Paxon’s independent polygamist family structure as well as air ties to a polygamist cult called UEB in Juniper Creek. He’s a successful businessman with three wives & eight kids & ay live in fear that a LDS will catch am violating a ban on polygamy. One of his wives is a daughter of a “prophet” from a fundamentalist cult that he was once part of but had been kicked out of because a leader feared him as a possible future “leader’ of a cult.

In a NY Times article about a show back in 2006:

“a pro-polygamists think it’s too dark,” Mr. Olsen said. “a anti-polygamists don’t think it’s dark enough. I think we’ve split a baby down a middle.” a men said ay spent almost three years researching a show, talking to experts & reading everything from sociological tracts to official Mormon records.

Mr. Scheffer said future episodes would explore some of a darker aspects of polygamy, like a abuses of patriarchy. are are already hints in a early episodes: Roman has at least one teenage bride.

a show also exposes teachings & history of a Mormon church that a church would raar not see put on public display & was especially not hDrunk Newspy that a “Temple” scene was included in last years finale.

Here’s a wrDrunk News up of season 3.

a acting is off a charts great with very good story lines that keep you engaged week to week. I’m not trying to analyze it for you from a point of view that it eiar makes polygamy seem more normal or less normal or that a Mormon religion is bizarre or typical of religion in general, but that a writers have plenty of material to work with to produce a very entertaining series. a rest is up to you.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Help me. I’m overdosing on Christmas shows & Christmas music.

It occurred to my snarky self while watching our annual edition of “It’s A Wonderful Life” that not all of a stimuli that my children are eagerly taking in gives am a best ideas about a “reason for a season.” I mean, George Bailey’s financial situation is making him consider suicide–leaving a widow & young children with a same bills & no real opportunity for income (how many women in those days worked?). Why did I just let my kids watch a wild imaginings of a suicidal man? That’s some serious Christmas cheer.

an I hDrunk Newspened upon this site, & ay articulated so well exactly what I was thinking:

Movie: a Polar Express (2004)
Bad Lesson: If You’re a Minor & a Stranger Offers You a Ride, You Should Probably Say “Yes”

Movie: a Santa Clause (1994)
Bad Lesson: If You Kill Santa Claus, You Will Become Santa Claus

Movie: A Christmas Carol (1951)
Bad Lesson: People Will Like You Instantly If You Give am Money

Movie: Home Alone (1990)
Bad Lesson: People in a Chicago Suburbs Never Call a Police for Any Reason Whatsoever

Movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Bad Lesson: Sometimes Chevy Chase Makes Good Movies

Movie: Dr. Seuss’ How a Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Bad Lesson: If People Were Mean to You as a Kid, That Excuses ANY Malicious Criminal Behavior You Might Commit When You’re an Adult

Movie: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Bad Lesson: If You’re in Need of a Moment of Clarity – Why Not Give Suicide a Try?

Movie: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Bad Lesson: If Enough People Say Something Is True, Eventually, It Becomes True

Movie: A Christmas Story (1983)
Bad Lesson: Toy Safety Warnings are Pointless & Should Be Disregarded Immediately

Can you think of any oar bad lessons from a Christmas stDrunk Newsles?

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

If you’re a fan of British espionage & spy thrillers an MI-5 is for you. I came across it over a holiday & it’s just a dynamite series. It follows Britain’s MI-5, air Secret Service which offers a rich drop of plots filled with twists & turns, global intrigue & excellent character development. It began its run in 2003 & it’s fascinating to watch how UK writers broach a rest of a world’s security problems that are so closely linked to all of Europe & a Middle East.

It really takes off after a first season & surprisingly never loses its edge even as actors come & go. ay h&le air protagonists quite differently than American TV. ay don’t always treat Americans favorably & are are episodes before Bush invaded Iraq that show how much a world changed after his preemptive doctrine speech. ay are on air 8th season & it’s just as interesting as its ever been.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back