"Credit is a vector..."

"...we are seeing a new kind of debt trap created. ...credit is a vector. Where does that vector lead you to? Does it lead you to particpation in a debt cycle that you can never get out of? I think one of the key issues about credit has to be: is it a debt trap sucking people in to permanent dependence on more and more borrowing?
-Vandana Shiva

Nobel Peace Prize winner and "Microcredit Missionary" Muhammad Yunus has no doubt improved the quality of many Bangladeshi women's lives and his acceptance lecture is necessary reading but Vandana Shiva complicates the issue of Microcredit in this debate with the earnest but outmatched Susan Davis of the Grameen Foundation. To apply Lorde's enduring radical metaphor, this is really a question of renovation (nowhere near gut despite its measurable impact on the developing world's womens lives) vs. demolition A must listen.

And before I forget recently NewsHour with Jim Lehrer tackled the 'Obamanon' to borrow from the Daily Show and negroes, what do you know, they got a White New Hampshire resident on tape saying Obama "speaks well." Chris Rock tackled this a while back when similar comments were made about Colin Powell:

Whenever Colin Powell is on the news, white people give him the same compliments: 'How do you feel about Colin Powell?', 'He speaks so well! He's so well spoken. I mean he really speaks so well!' Like that's a compliment, sh*t. 'He speaks so well' is not a compliment, okay? 'He speaks so well' is some sh*t you say about retarded people that can talk. What do you mean he speaks so well? He's a fuc*ing educated man! How the fu*k you expect him to sound, you dirty motherfuc*er? 'He speaks so well.' What are you talking about? What voice were you expecting to come out of his mouth? 'Imma drop me a bomb today', 'I be Pwez o dent!'."

And I'm not sure if the Matthew Shipp Piano Jazz episode has aired or not but per the podcast snippet it's some funny sh*t. McPartland who called Shipp's playing "interesting" connects his expressed affinity for boxing to what she understands as his brutal playing. He laughs and comes back very diplomatically. Suffice it to say she's not a Shipp fan although she thinks his label's name (Thirsty Ear) is wonderful.