Quick Linx. Friday, Sept. 17.

ABOUT TIME

Elizabeth Warren, valuable Wall Street scold, darling of progressives. (AP) 

Reformer Elizabeth Warren to be named WH advisor on consumer financial protection. (Boston Globe) Move sidesteps near-impossible task of securing filibuster-proof nomination of Warren to head new consumer financial protection agency. "The White House has found a way to put her there, and this is the best news American consumers have gotten in the financial area ever," says Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), chair of the House financial services committee and one of Warren's many champions, to be found exclusively among progressives. As Frank conceded, some conservative Dems would likely have joined in blocking Warren's nomination.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

The Saudis, among America's most reliable allies (!), are in line for a fleet of F-15s. (AP)

Obama the arms dealer: Prez to authorize record $60-billion sale of jet fighters to Saudi Arabia, which holds America to oil ransom and gave us most of the 9/11 hijackers. (Guardian)

POLITICS

A GOP takeover of Congress would be murder on the EPA. (New Republic) Which was created by...Richard Nixon. Go on, look it up.

BUSINESS

Whaddya know: Discount airlines boast the highest quality ratings. (27/7 Wall St.)

Toronto and Montreal now among world's most expensive cities. (Toronto Star)

Stephen Wetmore, latest in long line of Canadian Tire CEOs to lash surly employees with a limp noodle. (CP)

CEO of Crappy Tire acknowledges obvious, that Canadian Tire employees are world-class in customer-unfriendiness and need to shape up. (Toronto Star). Good luck with that. We've been hearing these avowals to improve since...when was the company founded, 1919?

CULTURE

CDC says about one-third of teens aren't learning about contraception in sex-ed. (AOL News) They are learning to say no to under-age sex, however, which is encouraging.

Profile of Jon Stewart and the times that made him. (New York) Stewart: " This is not a fragile country. I’m not suggesting we couldn’t find ourselves in deep conflict. But we had slaves, and we fought a civil war; now we’re down to Glenn Beck being hyperbolic with his audience about nostalgia. This too shall pass.”

Rare Q&A with Woody Allen. (NYT) Allen:  “To me, there’s no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions. They’re all equally valid or invalid, really. And equally helpful.”

 

Why Freddie quit blogging. (L'Hote) " I am incapable of writing on the Internet without becoming an asshole. This fact has asserted itself to me again and again. And while I believe the blogosphere is a narrow-minded and vulgar space, there is no excuse for my own vulgarity, my own lack of compassion, my own failure. I have tried reform; I have tried rededication; I have tried genre and tonal shifts. Sooner or later I revert to my hands, this keyboard, and my anger." (H/T Andrew Sullivan, who concedes his similar worries.)

 

Most of the tens of thousands of smartphone "apps" vendors brag of are useless to folks who have no idea they're there or how to use them. (27/7 Wall St.) I'm thinking for iPhones, which run out of juice after about seven minutes of light texting, a good app would be a GPS locator of the nearest greasy spoon that will let me recharge without springing for la plat bleu speciale.

 

CAREERS

 

The 10 least likely areas to add jobs in the future. (24/7 Wall St.) Which are: state and local government employees; construction; instalation, maintenance and repair; automaking; pharmaceuticals; big telecom; newspapers; airlines; realtors; and bank tellers.

 

ODDLY ENOUGH

 

World's biggest and smallest dogs meet in Central Park to launch latest Guinness book. (AOL News)

 

Inventor of "The Club" dies in car crash. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

 

Forget Koran burning: The real disgraces are Vancouver's annual pole-dancing contest (participants are fully clothed, but still) and the annual Brooklyn, N.Y. "Air Sex" (as in air guitar) contest for simulated sex. To which a stop must be put, please, someone! (AOL News)

 

Georgia man fined for backyard garden in "Cabbagegate" scandal. (AOL News)

 

Just holding an alcoholic drink makes you seem dumb. (AOL News)

 

Disgraced former president Bill Clinton presents the Liberty Medal to disgraced former British PM Tony Blair. -Getty Images

 

Tony Blair awarded $100,000 Liberty medal. (Philadelphia Inquirer) Previous honorees: Pol Pot, Charles Taylor, Phil Rizzo, Richard (Agent Orange) Nixon, Andrew Dice Clay. If only. The pious abettor of 200,000+ dead inncent Iraqi civilians will donate the prize proceeds to two charities named for, er, him, natch. New Statesman: "He may have been pelted with eggs and shoes in Dublin but Tony Blair can always count on a warm reception in the United States." (video)

 

Calvin College, Michigan liberal arts school, rescinds invitation to New Pornographers indy band. (Dumb as a Blog) Press release: "The band's name, to some, is mistakenly associated with pornography. Consequently, Calvin, to some, was mistakenly associated with pornography. Neither the college nor the band endorses pornography." A press release on how the task of explaining this didn't come up at the time the invitation was made is no doubt forthcoming. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Wascally Wabbit]

Good to see you catching up and getting ahead of yourself David (Friday 17th?)!
As for Saudi Arabia's F-15s - when I was there many years ago - they had the plplanes they needed - but the pilots - certainly for air shows and the like where intricate manoevres were required - were the US instructors who were amongst the rumoured 20-25,000 US Forces "advisors" who were kept out in the desert so as not to disturb the local populace and who never came to town in uniform!
King Abdullah (& Prince Sultan or whoever runs the Air Force these days) will be happy with the F-15s - as long as the Israelis don't get anything from the US (or from their own aircraft builders) that gives them any advantage over the Saudis...