Dark Bilious Vapors

But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors....
--Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation I

Home » Archives » March 2005 » dKos forwards a nifty idea....

[« Update on Abby's Job....] [A couple worthy additions to the sidebar, I think... »]

03/17/2005: dKos forwards a nifty idea....


for grassroots rebellion over the recent changes to the bankruptcy laws:

By my junior year of college I'd had enough of the credit card advertisements.

They were on every bulletin board on campus. They were on the boards in the mailroom, in the dorms, even on the boards of the various academic departments [...]

I didn't like the way those ads were luring so many of my friends and classmates into perpetual debt. And I didn't like the way all this increasing debt was changing the nature of higher education into a kind of glorified vo-tech system that was meant to do little more than enhance your future earning potential.

So like I said, I'd had enough.

I took down the ads. Every last one of them. I recycled all the posters, the fliers, the business reply envelopes.

They replaced them, of course, but I got rid of all of those as well. It became a weekly ritual. I'd make the rounds regularly. I carried a staple remover wherever I went.

So the point here is, if you're a college student, or a college professor, or even if you're the parent of a college student: Get yourself a staple remover.
Source: the slacktivist

Kos himself comments:
One of the biggest failings of the Bankruptcy Bill currently making its way to the president's desk, is that it eliminated the credit card company's risk without forcing them to change their own self-destructive behavior.

Why do credit card companies charge 12-25 percent interest rates? Because they are taking a risk in giving out their loans. There is a built-in assumption that they will lose some of that money as customers "default" on the loans.

Now, credit card companies could reduce their risks two ways -- stop giving out credit cards to the biggest credit risks, like, say, college students, or they could buy themselves a gutting of bankruptcy protections in congress. They chose the latter.
During my late but unlamented legal career, I spent a short (very short, thankfully) time doing collections. Based on my experience, I think it should be an affirmative defense to a debt collection action that the creditor, in granting credit to the debtor, was too fucking stupid for its own good. If that were enacted into law, I can guarantee you that One Big Consumer Credit Card Operation (discretion prevents me from stating their name, but it rhymes with "shittycrank") would never be able to collect one bloody nickel from the effective date of that act.

Len on 03.17.05 @ 12:27 PM CST



[ | ]

March 2005
SMTWTFS
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  



Home
Archives
Archives of Blogger site
Archives: May '04-Feb '05
Archives: Feb-March '05



RSS 1.0 FEED
Powered by gm-rss

Len's sidebar:
About Len (The uncondensed version)
Memorial to a dear friend
Frederick W. Benteen
The Web of Leonards
The St. Louis Cardinals
The Memphis Redbirds
The St. Louis Browns
The Birdwatch
Hey! Spring of Trivia Blog
BlogMemphis (The Commercial Appeal's listing of Memphis blogs)
The Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything
George Dubya Bush Blows
Kraftwerk: Chicago, 6/4/2005
My Chicago: Part One
My Chicago, Part Two
Millennium Park
Miscellaneous Chicago
Busch Stadium Tour and BoSox/Cards Game: 6/6/2005
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum

Len's extended blogroll:

Brock's Sidebar:
About Brock
The Agitator
Agoraphilia
apostropher
Boing Boing
Brad DeLong
Crooked Timber
The Decembrist
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Fafblog
Flypaper Theory
Heretical Ideas
John and Belle Have a Blog
Jon Rowe
Julie Saltman
The Language Guy
Literal Minded
Majikthise
Marginal Revolution
Matthew Yglesias
Oliver Willis
Orin Kerr
Pandagon
Pharyngula
Political Animal
Positive Liberty
Signifying Nothing
Unfogged
Unqualified Offerings

Karen's Sidebar
About Karen
The Ig-Nobel Prizes
The Annals of Improbable Research
The Darwin Awards
EBaums World
Real Clear Politics
U.S. News Wire
Foreign Affairs
The Capitol Steps
Overlawyered
Engrish
Legal Affairs
Nobel Laureates for Change
Program On International Policy
Law of War
Sunday Times
Media Matters
Fafblog
Is That Legal?
Discourse
Andrew Sullivan
Evolutionblog
Literal Minded
Jon Rowe
Dysblog
Freespace Blog
Thought Not
Publius Pundit
Maddox
Blog Maverick
Rosenberg Blog
Crooked Timber
GreeneSpace
EdCone.com
Conglomerate
McSweeney's

The Rocky Top Brigade:


Rocky Top Brigade Sampler


A New Memphis Mafia


The liberal alternative to Drudge.

Get Firefox!




The Rebel Alliance of Yankee Haters
Blue Squadron (NL)
Babalu (Marlins)
Leaning Toward the Dark Side (Mets)
Ramblings' Journal (Cubs)
Mediocre Fred (Brewers)
Len Cleavelin (Cardinals)
Red Squadron (AL)
Obscurorama (Red Sox)
Frinklin Speaks (Mariners)
Steve Silver (Twins)
Steve the Llama Butcher (Red Sox)
Rob the Llama Butcher (Rangers)
MoatesArt (Red Sox)
Rammer (Tigers)
JawsBlog (Indians)
Ubi Libertas (Blue Jays)
Oldsmoblogger (Indians)
Mass Backwards (Red Sox)
Unassigned
Industrial Blog
Cry Freedom



How many visitors are here:


Blogrings/Blog indexes/Blog search:
« ? Verbosity # »


Listed on Blogwise
Blogarama - The Blog Directory
Popdex
Popdex Citations
Technorati
Blog Search Engine



Greymatter Forums Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com
template by linear