A horrible true story of corporate greed:

So my parents were having hard times, in their marriage, financially, and so on. They missed a couple mortgage payments and had the bank take away our home-we'd had it for about 15 years or so (most of my childhood memories happened there). So they had to move out of their home. At this point they were still struggling to pay off other debts and were forced into filing for bankruptcy. A desparate measure taken to regain some normalcy in their lives. Well after they filed my mom received a mailer about a car sale. It was targeted directly at people who had recently been discharged from their bankruptcies. Basically it said something to the effect that they understood their circumstances and were prepared to offer either $5000.00 cash-back or 0% financing on the purchase of a car regardless of their debt history. Great deal, huh?

Well, my parents had since split up and my mom needed a car of her own, so it seemed the perfect opportunity. So she goes down and finds a car she really likes then starts the negotiating. Somehow she has just missed the fantastic offer. They no longer have the great financing or cash back, but what they can give her is a great 16.9% loan. So my mom takes it, she doesn't want to bother going through the stress and hassle of finding another car and dealer, especially knowing the whole time that she's probably lucky to get financing at all this soon after bankruptcy.

That was about six months ago or so. Well, just a couple weeks ago my mom got a letter. Apparently a number of people had received the same offer-with the same end results. They were now filing a class-action lawsuit against the dealership charging them of a classic "bait and switch" tactic targetting those who had just been discharged from bankruptcy. There were already about 50 people signed up. So my mom goes in to talk to the dealer, and he says it's not a big deal and that the most people are getting are about $1,500 each. He then offers to settle with her for $5,000 (the amount of the make-believe cashback offer). Of course if she settles out of court then she has to sign a contract that states the dealer admits no wrong-doing, she won't sue for damages, and that contains a gag-order, that she not discuss any of the details of the 'alleged-crime.' This all rose my hackles because last year I read Ralph Nader's No Contest which is a 400 page book exactly about corporate abuse of the tort (civil lawsuit against a corporate abuse) system. I told my mom to go after him in the courts and to not accept any out of court settlement. First of all it denies her any punitive damages (over and beyond the actual cost of the crime), and secondly it is important that these people be publically tried and charged so others don't fall so easily into their trap. That's the danger of these settlement offers with their attached gag-orders-they let the crime go on for all those who don't happen to be a part of the lawsuit. Also, if the guy was already willing to fork over $5,000 just to keep my mom silent that is a very good sign that he is well aware he is going to lose this case. Go get 'em mom! Make those corporate bastards pay.

don't they? education, people. very important, but! institutionalized education is not all it's cracked up to be. the fact that it's crafted means it has a purpose beyond education. we need to teach our children, personally. education should be a family process which involves the imparting of knowledge from the senior members to the younger members. this is how we get knowledge which has something to do with circumstances instead of knowledge which imparts only faraway and inconsequential knowledge. it's great to know that a theory of relativity exists but much more important to realize that the factories are oppressing you, and always will. americans have learned that the important information has nothing to do with their own lives. this breeds apathy and disinterest. but education should be about things that matter. i really believe that this is a big part of so much dissatisfction with education. why should we expect people who barely have the necessities of life to have any interest in world politics, history or scientific thought? so, if you have kids, please invest in them, impart your knowledge, and don't trust any educational institution whose only purpose is to make you accept the sorry state of your existence.

sidenote: whoa Condi! what the hell wrong with you girl. you lookin a little stressed, baby! c'mon girl, relax abit, just tell the truth. get it off your chess...

that i want to talk about. i am tired of patriotic people who traipse about talking about how great america is for all of her vices. i say whatever. why is america so cool? i just ask myself, besides the fact that i was born here as oppossed to somewhere else, why are we such a great country? really, in the context of every other modern industrialized country we don't have much to brag about. You can maybe say that we were the exemplar for many of the changes (though I am not sure how far that flies), but even so right here right now (thank you again jesus) we are falling ever farther behind our contemporaries (education, wages, labor, prison population, corporate scandals, etc.). so i can't really understand this american pride thing. is the argument that i should honor the land because i happened to appear in its boundaries? in that respect why the fuck ain't i a beautiful indian? where are my flowing black tresses? and my wide lips, welcoming every papoose? instead i have lank blonde hair no lips to speak of and am oppressed when i raise my voice against the slaughtering of innocents abroad. halleluja! i guess i am just asking those who are 'proud to be american' why? give me some reasons. make me believe.

Government agency finds 71% of foreign-owned companies and 61% of U.S. firms paid no tax on profits. This study is a confimation of the same one done 5 years ago with similar results. So these multi-billion dollar profit-making machines are paying much less a percentage of their earnings than you or I to the Man. Also 94% of companies paid 5% or less of their earnings as taxes-damn fine tax rate! I don't even want to bother complaining. So there it is. Wish I was a corporation, being plain ole human makes me feel such the chump.

We went to see it last night. It's in German with subtitle. I liked it a lot. Nice to see some good ole Deutschland again. And to hear it, it's such a fun language. The theme is also pretty good, and although it's a somewhat hokey comedy, it deals with the reality of the people who lived in East Germany as the wall came down and their lives were turned upside down. What a strange time to live in. Socialism fading behind you, and the wide world of capitalism beckoning. Trading your role as citizen and comrade for consumer and producer. Awwww. Wie Toll!. So I would reccomend it for anyone who knows German or doesn't mind subtitles. Have fun.