463...It's Yer Death Day

Yesterday actually, here is a cut and paste number from Slate:

Robert Strange McNamara, who died today at age 93, was the personification of postwar America, the original and ultimate "whiz kid" who rose to power on the firm belief that arms and rationality can solve all problems--and tumbled to tragedy as the illusion shattered in the fields of Vietnam.

His ascent traced a path through Harvard Business School, where he was the youngest professor in its history; the Army Air Forces, where he pioneered the use of statistics to maximize the efficiency of bombing raids over Japan; Ford Motor Co., where he was promoted to president; and finally, in 1961 at age 44, to President John F. Kennedy's secretary of defense.

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336...We Have A New Oldest Man On Planet

With a refreshing attitude.

His name is Henry Allingham, he is 113 years old and as of yesterday he has officially been proclaimed the oldest man alive by Guinness World Records, after the death, also yesterday, of Tomoji Tanabe in Japan.

Mr. Allingham, who fought in the big one, World War One, attributes his longevity to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women ..." in a report by lined Maev Kennedy in the Guardian.co.uk.

His current hobby is sleeping. A lot.

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220...Coke Goes Green

Yes, that is what I thought too; the narco industry had figured a way to mix pot with cocaine but, noooooooooooooooooooo.

What it is is in Japan Coca Cola is going to rolling out green tea and basil flavoured Coke on Monday.

Mmmm, good.

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168...Bernie Sanders, Junior Senator From Vermont

Watching him on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher and Bernie The Red makes a couple of great points about the USA and their f'd up economy.

Point one is that they, the USA, are the only major country in the world without a national health care system and that has contributed to the demise of General Motors. According to the only sitting Senator who is neither a Republican or a Democrat, General Motors spends more money on healthcare for retired workers than they do on steel. That doesn't happen in Japan, Korea, etcetera, etcetera.

Point two from Bernie The Red is that the top 1 per cent of American wage earners make more than the bottom 50 per cent combined. President Obama has just raised the tax rate for the uber rich from 36 to 39 per cent; fifty years ago under President Eisenhower, in the greatest period of United States economic history, the top rate was 90 per cent. In fact the top marginal tax rate was 91 per cent until 1963. The alleged trickle down economy doesn't work because they, the ones at the top, don't trickle down. As Bill Maher says, they buy antique commodes. But, if the government has the money, they are more likely to trickle it done.

Food and fact for thought.

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