Kunal Dua » USofA

Potato Potaato?

Kunal — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:31:17 +0000

No donor to the (Bill) Clinton foundation has raised more persistent questions than Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining executive. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Giustra shared a midnight banquet in September 2005 with Kazakhstan’s authoritarian president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev. Mr. Clinton praised Mr. Nazarbayev’s bid to head an international election-monitoring organization, undercutting American foreign policy and his wife’s sharp criticism of Kazakhstan’s human rights record.

Two days after the trip, Mr. Giustra’s company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan. Spokesmen for both men said there was no connection between the trip and the deal. Months later, a foundation controlled by Mr. Giustra gave $31.3 million to the Clinton foundation, its largest known donation.

Source: NYT.

Politicians in the west play by the same set of rules as Indian schools then – a world where bribes go by the name of “donations”.

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The Illustrated President

Kunal — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:40:50 +0000

So Bush’s inspiring, prosyletizing Methodist is in fact a silver-tongued horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob. It seems a fitting marker for the Bush presidency. Bush has consistently exhibited what psychologists call the “Tolstoy syndrome.” That is, he is completely convinced he knows what things are, so he shuts down all avenues of inquiry about them and disregards the information that is offered to him. This is the hallmark of a tragically bad executive. But in this case, it couldn’t be more precious. The president of the United States has identified closely with a man he sees as a mythic, heroic figure. But in fact he’s a wily criminal one step out in front of justice. It perfectly reflects Bush the man. . . and Bush the president.

(via Jason Kottke)

Bears got you down?

Kunal — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:41:39 +0000

Struggling to figure out what’s happened to stock-markets around the world?

Here’s a crash course (pardon the pun!) that should help you out a bit.

How Wall Street got into this mess by Jim Jubak.
The ongoing Subprime Meltdown.
What the heck is Subprime Lending anyways?

You might wanna visit the links in the reverse order of listing. As usual, reader discretion is advised regarding Wikipedia material.

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I think we are dying

Kunal — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:15:21 +0000

Police Officer bakes brownies then calls 911.

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Northern Living

Kunal — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:13:33 +0000

Kashyap sent me this the other day.

Like always, it’s funnier because it’s true.

I am living the dream

Visit a “sale” at your own risk

Kunal — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:50:23 +0000

Maybe they should make it mandatory for all sales advertisements in the great US of A to come with a statutory warning – “Visiting the store during the sale can cause bodily harm”. It might well be in business interest in the lawsuit capital of the world. Sample this.

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

That is CNN’s version of events. Here’s another page that links to some video footage as well. Of course the only stampedes we have here in India are at the religious gatherings and people actually die which is tragic of course but I’m yet to hear of any stampedes at sales.

But this is nothing new to America. In holiday season 2003 a 41-year-old woman looking to lay her hands on a 29 USD DVD player was crushed and knocked unconscious at a Wal-Mart sale. Survival of the fittest? More like goodies for the fittest.