Apt

Once in a while I offer news and comment on the enablers of Big Brother. I note this morning a new development in the  saga of Cogent (COGT, NYSE, $11.01).

The company makes and manages automated digital fingerprinting devices and databases to dissuade you from annoying your elected masters.

Cogent has recently sold itself to 3M.  Some shareholders think the acquisition price was too low. Enter the lawyers to sue Cogent management.

Okay, nothing unusual here except what I at first thought was a small joke in reporting the name of the legal firm.

Bull and Lifschitz.
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Live-blogging stupid and expensive fantasies

I am off to town to ask the price of a Willys Jeep, a CJ2A, I think. It's already haze gray. It is not  a total rust bucket. I don't know if it runs and/or drives.

I have a dream.  Except my stencils would say U.S.S. Henderson. Or maybe Desron 5.

I hope the price is prima facie  prohibitive, otherwise I may be setting myself up for the automotive screwing of the century.

EDIT: Damn. The price is in that treacherous sea between the Cape of Slight Overprice  the Straits of Laughing Out Loud.

Lord, give me the strength to say "No thank you." after the close eyeball and test drive tomorrow evening.

Hi Sarah. This is a pig. They go oink.

Iowa contributes two great things to the world.  We produce mounains of good food in support of the international hobby of breeding ourselves into lemmingness. We decide who gets to run for president of the United States.

'tis the season, and as harvest time approaches the march of  Republican mugwumps along Interstate 80 is gathering steam. Today is Sarah Palin's turn. She'll raise some right-wing money to confound liberal/statist  candidates this fall. On balance, that is a good thing.  

More significatly,  she will prance down the runway, giving Zeke and The Missus a gander at the skin which she hopes will one day contain a president.

This is terribly exciting, and I suspect even the corn will suspend growing in awe of Sarah's nearness. I wish I could be more overwhelmed at the thought of her running for  the White House, like I would be at an invitation to hunt grizzly with her on Kodiak Island.

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For those of you keeping track, the other Republicans sitting on straw bales and pretending to understand us flyover folks are:

-- Rick Santorum (when he can break away from his exclusive interviews with God)

--Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota

--Good ol ' Newt Gingrich

Of the lot, Newt is the one who comes closest to showing a rudimentary understanding of constitutional government.  

The Council on Foreign Relations has been a target of the Three-Neuron Right for decades. It's seen as an enclave of uberintellectuals using their formidable brain power to subvert the will of Rush Limbaugh followers everywhere.

The latest, referring to the so-called end of American combat operations in Iraq:

"We could end up with a situation where Iraq is a mess," said Steven Cook, a Mideast specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.

If that represents CFR thinking, we can all quit worrying about being steamrollered by   the council's awesome intellect.  Unless, of course, we miss its point that Iraq was  an orderly and tranquil place prior to our adventure there.