Wide Angle View by George Ziemann -- March 19, 2009 I'm trying to step way back from my album project tonight (very close to finished but I'm not satisfied yet), which is a good time to address some of the bizarre stuff that's been happening lately. Obama and the Green Fountain I'm sure there's a picture of this somewhere, but there's copyright infringement and all to think about, since I wasn't actually there. Anyway, Michelle Obama talked someone into turning the White House fountain green on St. Patrick's Day. Surprisingly, this had never been done before. The city of Chicago turned an entire river green, but Obama had better backlighting going on. Jim Cramer and Jon Stewart I expected more of a battle there. Cramer just kind of rolled over, took responsibility for the entire collapse of the banking system before he even sat down, and tried to ruin the fun. Stewart pushed on, pointing out that there's an entire network (at least one) devoted to financial news and absolutely no one there had a clue what was happening until it was too late. I guess the biggest question was why it was Comedy Central asking these questions instead of, say, a Senate subcommittee? Or maybe 60 Minutes. AIG Up until like, oh, two days ago, I was still trying to figure out why all these people were getting multi-million dollar bonuses for in the first place when the company lost a jillion dollars. Obviously, the management was not overperforming. Then I found out they were bonuses for not quitting. Considering AIG is all about insurance, you would think that they would had the foresight to throw in a clause calling off the deal if the employees in question just happen to drive the business to the brink of financial ruin. I guess not. Phoenix Spotlight Phoenix is in the news, having just figured out that half of all the murders in Maricopa County last year were carried out by drug smugglers from Mexico. We also lead the league in kidnapping for ransom and auto theft. Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General, recently went somewhere or was on TV and said that smuggling drugs (primarily marijuana) funded the purchase of AK-47 assault rifles (in Maricopa County), which are being used to smuggle humans and commit extortion. (Handy Interactive map at the L.A. Times) Goddard says that maybe we should talk about decriminalizing pot, sell it legally and put the drug cartels out of business. But we like prohibition because it employs law enforcement officials and prison guards. The other reasonable option is to question the wisdom of selling AK-47s in the first place. No one is going to even suggest that. We love guns. Get an AK-47 for all your friends and family. Take them to the park. But don't take any weed there. That's a dangerous substance, don't you know? Orwell Arrives Suddenly, there are speed cameras and red light cameras everywhere in the Phoenix. This doesn't bother me too much, as I tend to drive the speed limit anyway because I don't like paying tickets. It's just that there are so damn many of them. I guess that if any serious information-gathering was going on with these cameras, they'd be catching the people from the drug cartels coming in and out of town.