Hey, there ain't nothin' more American than hating the IRS, or feeling sorry for anyone that's done battle with them.
posted by aaron at 11:54 AM on September 22, 2001
He sang it both ways, only doing the Post/Newsday thing the second time. Why? Well, when he wrote the song, the Times and Daily News were really the only two papers left in town that mattered. The Post was a dying, nearly-irrelevant liberal newspaper, and Newsday had no city presence whatsoever. I guess he was just trying to be a bit more inclusive and recognizing that things change, just a little bit.
oh and julia roberts
She was by far the most insincere person there. During her little speech you just wanted to reach through the TV and slap her in the face. Ecch.
I was a little put off at first by people who make 20 million a movie asking ME for money....
There have actually been a few big-time celebrities that have given real money; Julia Roberts has given $2 million (okay, I won't slap her now), Dr. Dre just gave $1 million, and so has Jim Carrey and Rosie O'Donnell. But they're about it, as far as I know.
Anyway, Jerry Lewis must be pissed. He has to work 24 solid hours to pull down $50 mil. These people do two hours of barely breaking a sweat and they've made what, something like $200 million so far?
The truly sad thing though, is this: I've been running the numbers, and even if you add up everything that's been given so far - this telethon, the three major relief campaigns, all the millions donated by corporations - well into the hundreds of millions of dollars - it still only comes out to a few thousand dollars per victim's family. There were that many people killed by this attack. So don't feel content when you hear the hideously high tally of donations on the news; we've barely started to collect what's really going to be needed for these people left behine.
At least the NYPD and FDNY widows will be somewhat okay financially: They get their spouses' full salaries for the rest of their lives, plus a one-time stipend of something like $160K. Even some of the rich victims' companies are already starting to reneg on their pledges: Cantor Fitzgerald's already stopped paying salary to their missing employees' families, and they're dropping some major hints that they won't be getting their (almost certainly dead) spouses' already-earned 2001 bonuses either. This is especially bad since in the bond trading business, it's the bonuses that actually make up most of their yearly take-home pay, not the day-to-day salaries. So these familes are already teetering on the edges of defaulting on mortgages and horrible stuff like that, only a week-and-a-half after the disaster. And keep in mind it's Cantor Fitzgerald that's run by that guy with the slicked-back-hair-but-still-balding guy who's been on every channel twice a day as "the face of compassion on Wall Street during this time."
posted by aaron at 12:36 PM on September 22, 2001
Well, this isn't really the case. The company still exists. They have other offices, and of course all the financial data is triple- or quadruple-backed up in various places all over the world in preparation for just this sort of event. And indeed, Cantor was up and running again the moment bond trading resumed a few days later.
And it's almost impossible to underestimate the amount of money there is to be made in the bond market. This company was very rich, most of its employees were very rich. And they're still functioning, and making money every day. I'm sure the attack has caused them a mess of trouble, and has made a financial dent. But so much of a financial dent that they couldn't even keep on paying out the salary of these 700 dead people for even a single two-week pay period after the attack? Yes, I have a lot of trouble believing that.
(There's also the gnawing moral question as to how people as wealthy as these were could have all been such profligate spendthrifts that some of their families are seemingly already having trouble feeding their kids less than 10 days after the attack. But it's a secondary question.)
posted by aaron at 11:20 PM on September 22, 2001
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Will the music be available on CD in stores, and if so, will the proceeds go to the benefit fund? I would buy it as an additional contribution.
posted by mtevis at 7:47 PM on September 21, 2001