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Do you remember a few years ago when two bodies were discovered in Antarctica? The bodies were men who had died there on an expedition in the early years of the twentieth century, but their corpses were preserved as if they had died mere hours before being discovered. It was a feast for the scientific community. One of the things that the forensic scientists discovered after testing the corpses of these men was that both of them suffered from lead poisoning. Virtually all of the food brought along on the expedition was stored in lead cans, as was the norm at that time. The scientists theorized that both men, and possibly most of the expedition were insane at the time of their death because of the lead poison.

I dont know what made me think of that. Maybe it was George Bushs speech the other day where he condemned Russia for invading Georgia. No one seemed to be bothered by the incongruity of a President with an invading army in Iraq lecturing another country about an invasion. Everyone just seemed to nod in silent agreement. Not that there is any shortage of examples of mass insanity. Maybe a hundred years from now, scientists will discover that the people of the early decades of the twenty-first century were all victims of

"artificial coloring insanity"

or some similar thing. It would certainly explain a lot of what is considered to be

"normal behavior."

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company made more news today when it declared a quarterly loss much larger than expected. It was hoped that a rebound by Freddie Mac, as it is commonly known, would indicate a bottoming out of the mortgage crisis. Apparently, more bad news is to come with an end now forecast at the end of 2009 at the earliest. Sobering stuff.

Freddie Mac is a government sponsored enterprise, created in 1970 to help the average American citizen purchase homes. What Freddie Mac does is to buy mortgages on the secondary market, and then sell them as mortgage backed securities. Their securities declined by $1 billion, it was announced today. Freddie Mac has a total worth of $4.2 billion. To start their recovery, they hope to raise $5.5 billion in new securities. Investment banker Myron Gushlak, for one, believes that the investor must believe that an end is in sight before Freddie Mac becomes an appealing investment option again. That end was not announced today despite new funds pledged by the federal government and a new law passed this week to shore up the struggling company.

According to a National Public Radio report, when Freddie Mac was established, the government pledged to keep it in operation with no end date to that pledge. Freddie Mac will, therefore, continue to exist no matter what losses might still be announced. It might not be recognizable, but it will weather this storm in one form or another. That guarantee sounds almost naive to me. Idyllic. Optimistic. I guess that is one definition of hard times – when other times seem so desirable by comparison.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case youre one of the eleven people in the United States who hasnt yet seen

Batman,The Dark Knight

, let me be brief so you can go out and buy your ticket. Okay, maybe there are more than eleven of you out there, but according to Reuters this morning, Batman became the fastest movie to make $300 million, and it has only been out for ten days.

Every now and then, a movie comes along that resonates in the viewers mind.
Certainly Heath Ledgers brilliant portrayal of The Joker is a huge part of the success, Christian Bale is convincing and the special effects are sterling. But that doesnt explain why it resonates. With apologies, then, let me point out a couple of my observations. In this movie, Batman is not quite as squeaky clean as he had been portrayed in past incarnations. He is conflicted, often coming right up to the very edge of the line that separates good from evil; right from wrong; perhaps he even crosses that line. There is no consensus of whether what he is doing (his vigilante-ism) is good for the residents of Gotham or not. The population is split, some calling

the batman

a criminal himself. Even visually, the city of Gotham itself is darker than past portrayals. Is any of this starting to sound familiar, say, perhaps, when compared to certain political leaders or situations?

But

The Joker

(Heath Ledger) steals this show. He is evil incarnate. Unlike previous villains, this Joker does not want money, or power. Those are things we have grown accustomed to. They no longer frighten us. In fact, they seem, in these early days of the twenty-first century, almost normal. In one scene, the Joker sets fire to a pile of money, the ultimate crime to most Americans. What the Joker wants is to bring down Gotham, to throw it into chaos. Americans are just coming to grips with this notion. People understand the motivations of Napoleans and Hitlers who want to take over the world. But this idea of declaring war on somebody for the sole purpose of destroying them is a relatively new one to most, say something they have had to get used to since 2001. The Joker does not want to rule Gotham, or to steal all of its money. It simply wants it destroyed.

Am I reading too much into this? Perhaps. My friends have accused me of worse. But besides the fact that it is a good movie on its own merit, The Dark Knight has managed to encapsulate our darkest fears. This movie is set in a world where good overlaps evil, and motives have changed. I wonder if a movie goer in 1950 would even get it. Sixty years ago it would have seemed preposterous that a villain would not want to take over the world. Ledgers Joker would have seemed farcical, in fact, unbelievable. That is why this movie resonates. On some level, we are confronted with this sort of Joker every day. He fills us with terror. He is truly frightening. More than any other movie I can think of, this movie is about the world in 2008.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)