Ran Jak Diary

Obama questioned by FBI

When a US president is questioned by the FBI and the justice department, it is big news. But not when president-elect Obama is being questioned. At least not in the New York Times, which ran a headline that almost laughed at the seriousness: "Obama Follows a Tradition, Testifying for Prosecutors." With a headline like that, you could have thought he joined a club.

Technology marches on

Dutch electronics firm Philips has developed a handheld device that uses magnets to detect cocaine, marijuana and morphine in a drop of saliva. The new instrument will open the door to roadside drug testing and will be commercially available to police forces from next year.

Readers want to know!

Q. There is so much snow piling up here in the USA that I was wondering if there is a limit beyond which it cannot snow.  

A. Yes, there is a limit of 35 feet (just over 10 meters) in most states.

Q. I voted for Barrack Obama to bring honesty back, but now I'm not sure. I mean, considering the crap his 'internal' report gave us about his own and his staff's contact to the governor of Illinois, how much bullshit will we have put up with?

A. There is a limit of 35 feet (just over 10 meters).

Q. There is so much snow piling up here in Canada that I was wondering if there is a limit beyond which it cannot snow.  

A. Yes, there is a limit of 35 meters (just over 115 feet).

 

Diarist: Ho ho ho!

A holiday note from Dodo and Ed has warmed my soul. If magic could beam me over to their place and get me back here later on, I'd learn to click my heels.

The Diary has received many cards and letters from you, dear readers. Your kind words are very much appreciated. I'll try to do more personal stuff in the months ahead.

It is always good to hear from Erik and Marky, who get my vote for "best couple," the 2nd year in a row. Their day sounds busy and fun!

German rescue fund shrinks

Germany will put up 25 billion euros in an attempt to rescue the country's weakening economy. The amount is 15 billion euros less than announced recently under heavy pressure from UK prime minister Gordon Brown. Chancellor Merkel's government said it cannot put up more than 25 billion because EU of regulations on members' debt.

Bad outbreak of flu in UK

A major outbreak of flu has British health officials worried. It is already set to be the biggest epidemic in the UK since eight years ago, The Guardian reports.

Fury at failed bailout

Increasing public anger at the failed multi-hundred-billion-dollar bailout of banks is starting to seep through to the mainstream US media.  In video #1, the first person you will see is columnist Mike Barnacle. He will then be joined by financial news personality stock picker James Cramer. Watch closely when Cramer launches a verbal attack on former US treasury secretary Rubin, who is linked in some allegations to an unseen group claimed to oversee international policy on financial issues. 

Video #2 is from Tuesday's "Morning Joe," with comments from left and right.

The pope's gay threat

The pope said saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. He advised that behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations was a "destruction of God's work".

Oh really? What steps might the pope's believers, supporters and fans take to save humanity from the gay, bisexual and transsexual population? Mass murder? The question is valid because the pope's words recall similar claims that were made by National Socialists -- Nazis -- in Germany. and then beyond Germany to the other nations that they brought under German rule. This pope knows all about it. He was born and raised in Germany. His name was Joseph Ratzinger. When he turned 14, Joseph became a member of Hitler Youth, as did all German boys of that age. He was taught about saving the German race from Jews, gays and gypsies back then, just as he preaches about saving the human race from gays, bi's and transsexuals now. 

The pope must withdraw the implicit threat contained in his incendiary remarks. 

Happy birthday Jaye

Cheney

$1.68 billion went to bail-out execs

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, Associated Press research has learned. The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still paid multimillion-dollar executive pay packages. Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found. The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.
The AP compiled total compensation based on annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 116 banks have so far received $188 billion in taxpayer help. Among the findings:

The average paid to each of the banks' top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.

Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company's top five executives received a total of $242 million.

This year, Goldman will forgo cash and stock bonuses for its seven top-paid executives.

They will work for their base salaries of $600,000, the company said.

Facing increasing concern by its own shareholders on executive payments, the company described its pay plan last spring as essential to retain and motivate executives "whose efforts and judgments are vital to our continued success, by setting their compensation at appropriate and competitive levels." Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday declined to comment beyond that written report. The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28.

Diarist: serious art

Matte LeGray and I started hanging out in Montreal before I found a great place to live. He helped locate Maison Royale, the wonderful old building that eventually served as the three-storey place where I lived. Matte wrote yesterday and included a masterful photograph from his recent work. We then had a phone call and he sent more of his superb art - four pieces in all. You will find them all here.

Floris makes an annual guest appearance in my life and this year's was via video phone from his new home near Cape Town. We first met in London, at the behest of someone who said of Floris: "He is an amoralist, the sole heir to a supermarket fortune and a whore's dream come true." I know very little about Floris. In previous talks he bragged about his flings with prostitutes - as many as 150 of them in a single year, he claimed, often two at a time, one of each gender. Each year he has defended his "appetite for whores" as a natural extension of his need for a constant need of new sexual partners. He always claimed it would be futile for anyone to try "taming me or marrying me." Our video conversation last night had barely begun when Floris introduced me to "my wife, Abigail." She seems like a sweet girl.