Harsh Realities Set in

Wall St. tanked today, with the Dow falling more than 500 points, in what is called a "correction".  Some believe, in short, Kudlow's wonderful investing class realized that nothing was worth as much as they thought.

Fareed Zakaria thinks that the Democrats will now mirror the obstinacy of the Teabaggers and the so-called super committee will deadlock and accomplish nothing.  So we have unbridgeable divide in Congress, thae aggravating part about that is that is the partisan claim that it represents the electorate.  In truth, the partisans make up less than half the voters in many states and their Archie and Meathead bases are an even smaller slice of the population.  Yet due to a rigged electoral system the minorities and their war control the government. I think Obama honestly tried to be post-partisan , but the system is fixed to prevent it from happening.

Texans were told to conserve electricity or run the risk of power outages. Now they are occurring sporadically and rolling blackouts may begins as electricity use skyrockets in the face of unprecedented heat:

"I can't remember any year with the magnitude and length of this heat wave," Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, told msnbc.com on Thursday.

And it's not just Dallas, or even Texas, for that matter. On Thursday, 14 states from Texas to Virginia were under heat alerts. Several dozen deaths have been tied to the heat since early July.

"Leave BP alone" nonsense continues

A meme now running around the blogosphere and in columns is that people should stop badmouthing BP because. among other things, their stock is plummeting. You can even see this on the left-leaning UK Guardian.
This is too big too fail on steroids, where we must rein in free speech simply because it may hurt a companies stocks.

I'm sorry, but BP faces ruin because of its actions, including the insane idea to self-insure their drilling operation. The stock market is supposed to be a means to an end, but obviously investing and financial games have become an end unto themselves. Ed Markey put it best on an interview this morning, "we can't have 28 year-old traders determining policy."