Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman from 1987 to 2006 (fearless defender of wealth inequality and chief architect of the global finance meltdown of the late 2000s), is a symbol of plutocracy (rule by the rich).

Presidents are limited to serve eight years, and are (theoretically) elected every four. If chief lackey to billionaires, and economic overlord to the rest of us, can serve for nearly twenty, while the presidency shifts three times between the two (allegedly oppositional) parties, there's a problem with our democracy.

Walking back from the post office today, I think I learned to dance with my hips while listening to Chuck Berry on the iPod.

If dancing badly is not something I needed to atone for, I don't know what is.

People have always needed something better than mailing lists— or other communication tools as they exist now. We need something that can reach millions of people (or billions– everyone) and still be open to everyone on an equal basis. Reaching everyone means filtering to reduce quantity and increase quality. Staying open to everyone means that the filtering must not be controlled by any group, must in some true sense belong to everyone.

I will admit that there's a frightening part of me enjoying the officially agreed upon international economic crisis, for two reasons.

Roslindale Family Evicted, 4 Arrested in Attempted Blockade
Watch that, and ask yourself who the police are there to protect and serve.

Is the letter C a useless letter? (Bob, arguing that it is useless, and Brian, arguing that it is good and necessary, nearly came to blows and the end of a friendship over this. They are true heroes of the Corporation.) This must be debated endlessly.

The 56-foot deep bottomless pit from FailBlog is pretty good too.

And of course the need to enforce that every sentence must end in with two spaces after the final punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point, colon) must be a project of C.A.T.S.U.P.

(I hadn't thought about this favorite saying for a while, until Mom brought it up today.)

What's your father say?

Even paranoids have enemies.

Douglas Rushkoff tells it like it is in the economy:

the money is itself crap. It’s based on a centralized lending scheme and has no intrinsic value. The Fed no longer even releases the metric telling us how much money is out there.

All this means is that you can’t count on capitalism anymore. Your wealth is not how many paper assets you have. It’s not even how much land you have (or think you have). It’s what you can do. It’s your value to other people.

Jerimiah Was a Bull Frog (Joy to the World)

I never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine

Some Nat King Cole Trio numbers:

Yes sir, that's my baby

And of course, It must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that

I have amazing friends. And I know I have modest friends too, so they're probably out doing all kinds of cool things I don't know about.

But here are two things I do know about:

Anjali Forber-Pratt is winning Paralympic medals in China. Her family is there to cheer her on, including her brother Ian. She got the bronze medal in the 400 meter wheelchair race!

Amanda Miller is acting in a play, the longest-running off-Broadway production, Tony and Tina's Wedding. And not just appearing in it, I'm pretty sure a role that could get you best supporting actress counts as starring. And this is just in addition to working full time and taking classes to get another degree.