One unstated role of financial regulation is to

disguise inequity -- to make it appear that the

financial playing field is level when it never has

been and never will be.  It seeks to preserve the

illusion of equality.

Michael Lewis
Bloomberg.com
11/17/2003

Pavia is burning.

Winds increase the fire.

Magyar mobs set upon citizens

choking, fleeing from the flames.

Down the street the blaze spreads.

Women and children are trampled down,

a holy priest is slain.

Pavia is burning.

Gold melts through chests

hidden deep in sewers.

Streams of silver hiss

and bubble in the gutter.

Pavia is burning.

Luitprand
Bishop of Cremona
10th cent.

In Manchuria the Japanese

an empire once began to build.

And for a while the world just watched.

It was happening inside some sphere of influence,

and besides, we were all feeding on China then.

It didn't end well, I will remind you.

Regiments of corpses paved the path

to ruin and defeat.

When the seeds are being planted

there is talk of gold and glory,

but the harvest of empire seems to be

debt and death reaped plentifully.

"It's gone too far,"

I told my son.

Back on the day, I knew.

"It's  gone too far for peace and reason."

And now it's gone beyond that too.

Beyond the line between

the old world and the new.

Beyond where we can choose

what next we ought to do.

Perhaps beyond all the good

that once we knew.

Over and over we've been told:

"It changed forever on that day in September."

It doesn't float

and it doesn't fly.

It sinks in the water

and falls from the sky.

A regiment of women marches off to war.

Heretofore,

when they went to war

it was nurse or whore

but not no more.

Now its lots of gore

and blood galore

and our hearts are sore

when we tally the score

once the regiment of women comes home from war.

It is not true, no it is not true,

that we came to live on earth.

Ponder this, you eagle knights,

though you are carved in jade

you will break;

though you are made of gold,

you will be crushed;

though a quetzal feather,

you will not last.

We are not forever on this earth;

only for a little while.

We only came to sleep,

we only came to dream;

it is not true, no it is not true

that we came to live on earth.

Nezahuacoyotl
King of Texcoco
15th cent.

Along a Shoreline shoreline

looking for lingam shaped stones

I chanced upon Le Coeur de Guerre

and a piece of rusty pipe

both cast down at the jumbled edge

of the deep blue sea.

"MummyDaddy don't touch it, it's evil."

But touch it I did.

I thought it looked like a heart.

and so it does.

It is also the ugliest rock.

They also serve who stand and wait.

But where waited he, number 43?

Mr. President,

you're no Dan Quayle.

I knew the war was over

when Ted got out of his tank.

And I know that it's the Lord above

that I have got to thank

for the SUV, so there can be

a little of that for little old me.

We knew the war was over

when Ted got out of his tank.

Keep America rolling, go buy an SUV.

You will be defending this land of liberty.

You can be an army of one,

go buy a tank and have some fun.

You'll know the war is over

when you get out of your tank. 

If a square tower is provided

with pyramids at the corners,

with varied shelters, like stairs, ports,

double bridges, devious entrances,

...and ditches, it will have, by itself,

great resistance.

Leonardo da Vinci
Madrid II 89r