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I just shot and cut this promo spot for our forthcoming OneTantra educational website and social network. Shot it on a consumer quality HD camcorder, but used Final Cut Pro, Color and film look processing to soften it up. And Motion for the end title. Let me know what you think!


Lauren for OneTantra.com from Mo Ma on Vimeo.

About those AIG Bonuses...

These Wall Street credit default swap gamblers... they're like the ne'er-do-well son-in-law who borrows $50,000 to start a restaurant, and then comes back and says he lost the money at the track, plus borrowed and lost $250,000 from the mob and they're gonna burn down the house with all of us in it in five minutes if we don't sign this TARP bill. So we fork over the money, and he shows up the following day in a nice new private jet he bought with the leftover money. Wow, isn't it shiny?

I think that if Obama went in and forced AIG to behave - convince their people re-invest their bonuses back into the company - it wouldn't be socialism... it would be acting like a venture capitalist. If a Silicon Valley VC was forced to inject $100 million into a failing startup to avoid an indemnification liability, you'd better believe that he'd get the CEO and managing team to toe the line... or he'd never have lunch near Sand Hill Road ever again! The government forked over so much money that it deserves the right to be angry, and should put some steel in it and read AIG's management the riot act.

Did you catch the Stewart vs Cramer smackdown?

It was hilarious. I think that Jon Stewart lives up to legacy of satirists like Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain. His body of work will likely withstand the test of time.

Man, that one line comment about Cramer beating dough-as-satirist on Martha Stewart's show... "Mr. Cramer, don’t you destroy enough dough on your own show?" was classic.

People understate the importance of satire in social commentary. In ancient times, you needed Aristophanes, Horace and Erasmus to speak truth to power via humor and satire, and sadly, the situation hasn't changed over the centuries. In 1599, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a decree banning verse satire. Today, the kings of media will launch counter-offensives on their morning shows, like they NBC did everything in its arsenal.

Without breaking a sweat, all Stewart had to do was respond with more comedy, in this case, with the assistance of Dora The Explorer, a cartoon character who insinuates that Cramer is a pendejo. And in a clever twist, Stewart includes a self-referential feces throwing monkey in the skit, which is basically what a comedian attacking a serious business journalist really is, right? But you really can't fight that monkey without looking like one, so CNBC sent a contrite Kramer marching in as a sacrificial lamb, to appease the angry god of comedy.

How ironic that a comedian provides serious insightful reporting about the serious financial advisor who acts like a buffoon on his own show.