Consider the latest eruption of this rhetorical disease, documented by Dana Milbank: Rick Santorum cries Nazi.

Rick Santorum sees Nazis everywhere: in the Middle East, in doctor’s offices and medical labs, in the Democratic Party, and now in the White House.

The Republican presidential candidate told a group of supporters Sunday night that this year’s election was like the time between 1940 and 1941 when Americans didn’t act against Adolf Hitler because they thought he was “a nice guy” and not “near as bad as what we think.”

The obvious implication — later denied by the candidate — was that Santorum is some modern-day Churchill and President Obama is der Fuhrer. It was outrageous and yet, for Santorum, routine.

Santorum’s vacuous use of the appeasement analogy is errant in both ways: chances are, nobody’s going to be annexing France under a potential Obama second term; and the presidential election has no relevance to WWII. In May ’08 Chris Matthews mercilessly exposed radio host Kevin James’ ignorance in parroting such a concept of appeasement:

The video has to be seen to experience the hilarious awkwardness involved, but Wikipedia summarizes:

James achieved notoriety for a May 15, 2008 guest spot on the MSNBC television program Hardball with Chris Matthews, in which James supported an apparent comparison by President George W. Bush of Democratic primary presidential candidate Barack Obama to American Senator William Borah of Idaho, who was serving at the time of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. [...]

In the middle of the interview, host Chris Matthews turned to James and, saying he was conducting a “history check,” asked “what did Chamberlain do wrong?” referring to English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin, even though President Bush never referred to the English Prime Minister. When James failed to give an answer more specific than “he was an appeaser,” and tried to explain that appeasement was the main issue, not the specifics of what Neville Chamberlin did “in 1938 or 1939″, Matthews kept repeating the same question as to the specifics of what Neville Chamberlin did. When James pointed out that it was president Bush who made the reference to history, not James himself, Matthews repeated the same questions. After this back and forth went on for a few minutes, James stated that if you are going to negotiate with your enemies, you have to negotiate from strength.

Although violent and uncouth, Gibbs’ talent harks back to a rap era when street lyricism was infused with visceral vigor instead of lazy braggadocio.

In [youtube link]

Blu
Place went numb when the bass hit the drum,
Had the ace by the waist but ain’t say nothing…
Lines on the mind like hymns at the shrine,
Told Gibbs keep them hinges in, we going in
Freddie Gibbs
Air Jordans and a motherfucking attitude,
Packing the pistol wrapped in plastic, make sure my package move…
Prior situations had my Mama at the station
Everyday that I wake, I probably violate probation
I’m a young thug, with hot slugs, that got his name on ‘em
Chi-town that 9 pound and took the train on em…
Homeboy Sandman
Way too hard for taming and taking part in entertainment awards,
My attitude is every tune is for taking it to em,
Now peep the place that we taking it towards, good night

Fuck Rap Pt. 2 [youtube link]

Even my love of playing ball couldn’t keep me out of the crack spot
Cause crack rock will turn a have-not to a fat knot
Don’t fuck with rappers, rappers is clones when the rapping stops
In my hood you had to be known to have your hat cocked…
That nigga Lupe said he ain’t a gangster or a hustler,
I’m all of the above, plus I’m one cold rapping motherfucker…
Lotta drug bars, cause ain’t no real drug bosses in the rap game,
If these niggas was, these niggas wouldn’t be trying to rap man,
Gangsta Gibbs, hit ‘em with the facts man

World So Cold [youtube link]

She told me I’mma have a son, I’m the one,
And she at the Doctor’s office for a visit, can I come
Near silence, dead in the room
Pregnancy complications left you dead in the womb
Maybe I take the blame, God punish me for old sins
The tears hit me when I think of what you could have been
I flame Jane, try to smoke away the pain
But I know the bond that we made wasn’t vain
Could have been my little Freddie, but I guess you wasn’t ready
For the world, a world so cold…

Let Me Ride [youtube link]

KD
They setup blacks, heroin and crack
And them racist-ass crackers tried to take that shit back,
To way before 1964, when they sprayed all the niggas with the firehose
And Dr King know that we ain’t no joke
50 years later and we still ain’t straight,
Just check the episodes on First 48,
That there is my city’s only claim to fame…
Freddie Gibbs
Let’s take a ride through the G.I. East Side,
Where the Vice Lords, Stones and GDs ride
And I never gave a fuck about a color or a sign
On the grind cause you know a nigga need mine……

Scottie Pippen [youtube link]

I issue eternal rest, sign up and be a subscriber
The price of life got so high that I must make sure I stay higher
Stay with the purp out of pizo
Stay smackin these niggas needles
Stay running the rock just like I play quarterback for the Eagles
Randall, Donovan, to Michael
‘Fore I picked up this mic I was hittin licks with some Lords
And did dirt with plenty Disciples
I’m gang-banging affiliated, federal investigated
Self-educated, all my co-conspirators catchin’ cases
I dropped straight outta college and I majored at home invasion
Believe I got the balls to clear up all of my altercations
Leave faces with alterations, the closed casket console
Tryna make a million dollars, fuck a million downloads…

Rob Me a Nigga [youtube link]

Freddie Gibbs
Spent all my last money, the bills too high
His jewelry, his whip game, the wheels too fly
I’m thinking about murder every time we cruise by…
Born in this world of tears, but died laughing
Put that on the headpiece right above my casket
Still in the game, my batteries still lasting
‘Bout to put some gas up in my Caprice Classic
Alley Boy
We be taking so much, now the shit fun
We be lookin for your shit ‘fore your shit come
Forty eight hours, nigga round my way, everyday nigga looking like a sitcom
In this game of lose or draw nigga,
You can be the one that get robbed, or be the one to rob a nigga
But we all gotta eat, so we get no sleep:
We gonna wait it out and kill a nigga!

ANGELA DAVIS: You ask me, you know, whether I approve of violence — I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense at all — whether I approve of guns. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Some very, very good friends of mine were killed by bombs, bombs that were planted by racists. I remember — from the time I was very small, I remember the sounds of bombs exploding across the street, our house shaking. I remember my father having to have guns at his disposal at all times because of the fact that, at any moment, someone — we might expect to be attacked. The man who was at that time in complete control of the city government — his name was Bull Connor — would often get on the radio and make statements like “Niggers have moved into a white neighborhood; we better expect some bloodshed tonight.” And sure enough, there would be bloodshed.

After the four young girls who were — who lived very — one of them lived next door to me. I was very good friends with the sister of another one. My sister was very good friends with all three of them. My mother taught one of them in her class. My mother — in fact, when the bombing occurred, one of the mothers of one of the young girls called my mother and said, “Can you take me down to the church to pick up Carole? You know, we heard about the bombing, and I don’t have my car.” And they went down, and what did they find? They found limbs and heads strewn all over the place. And then, after that, in my neighborhood, all the men organized themselves into an armed patrol. They had to take their guns and patrol our community every night, because they did not want that to happen again. I mean, that’s why when someone asks me about violence, I just — I just find it incredible, because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country, since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.

The November 29 ‘Passion for Fashion’ auction in London had some memorable pieces for sale, with the whole collection going for over £590,000 (£708,000 with buyer’s premium.) Says auctioneer Kerry Taylor, “This sale demonstrates that even in these difficult economic times that the appetite for fine haute couture and antique costume is undiminished and we are already looking forward to our next auction in February.”

Included was Lot 174: ‘Elizabeth Taylor’s Balenciaga couture gold figured cloqué silk sari gown, Autumn-Winter, 1964′. Liz Taylor had an appreciation for gold:

Double Oscar-winner Taylor wore the famous one-shoulder gold brocade Sari gown, designed by Cristobal Balenciaga, with the Port Talbot-born actor at the New Review Lido premiere in Paris, in December 1964.

Her hair was plaited and interlaced with ribbons by the top Parisian hairdresser, Alexandre de Paris, and she carried a gold clutch bag and wore golden shoes to match.

Taylor, who died aged 79 in March, had a slender 24-inch waist when she wore the gown, which sold for £31,200.

Liz Jones ruminates about the relationship between the clothes and the women’s lives:

I am contemplating this while standing in a huge and decidedly unglamorous warehouse in south London, surrounded by three outfits hung on mannequins. These gowns belonged to three of the most beautiful and famous women who ever lived — Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana. [...]

I ask Kerry whether the warehouse becomes spooky late at night, given the gowns’ owners are invariably dead. ‘It doesn’t, but I do believe the dresses retain some essence of the wearer,’ she says.

Alexander McQueen black velvet and bugle beaded evening gown, £78,000

Disaya printed chiffon dress worn by Amy Winehouse, £43,200

Emanuel replica of H.R.H. Princess Diana’s bridal gown, £48,000

duplicate Diana bridal shoes by Clive Shilton, £36,000

gentleman’s banyan, circa 1730-40, £28,800

An Imperial dragon robe, £24,000

Lupe Fiasco’s amazing personification of societal evil:

One of the oldest most ancientest things
Speak every single language on the planet, nah mean?
I am the American dream, the rape of Africa, the undying machine
The overpriced medicine, the murderous regime
The tough guy’s front, and the one behind the scenes

I am the blood of this city; its gas, water and electricity
I’m its gym and its math and its history
The gun shots in the class
And you can’t pass if you missing G

I taught them better than that
I taught them aim for the head, and hope they never come back
I’m glad your daddy’s gone baby, hope he never comes back
I hope he’s with you mother with my hustlers high in my trap

I hope you die in this trash; I can’t help it
All I hear when you crying is laughs
I’m sure somebody find you tied in this bag
Behind the hospital, little baby crack addicts had

Then maybe you can grow up and be a stripper
A welfare receiving, prostituting gold digger
You can watch on TV how they should properly depict ya
The river shall flow with liquor, quench your thirst on my elixirs

I am the safe haven for the rebel run away, and the resistor
The trusted misleader, the number one defender
And from a throne of their bones, I rule
These fools are my fuel so I make them cool

Baptize ‘em in the water out of Scarface pool
And feed em from the table that held the Corleone’s Food
If you die tell em that you played my game
I hope your bullet holes become mouths that say my name
Cause I’m the {*gunshot*}

I was virtually the last generation of American law students and business students taught that corporations had a responsibility—because they had special privileges under the law, like limited liability—to their stakeholders: to their shareholders, their employees, their customers, and the communities of which they were a part. Then starting in the late 70s, that practice changed and all of a sudden the shareholders were way up here and all the stakeholders were down here. It had the ironic consequence of giving the most influence over corporate decisions to the stakeholders with the least concern about the long term profitability of the corporation and the greatest concern about the short term profitability.

Ben Heineman recently suggested that Steve Jobs’ approach to running his public company bucked the trend, almost ignoring shareholders but benefiting them regardless by focusing on customer satisfaction:

Apple has paid no dividends since 1995. It hasn’t used leverage. It holds $76 billion in cash with nary a thought of a buy-back. It is hard to argue that fundamental business decisions were driven by stock options (although there is the issue of options back-dating in the debit column).

Obviously, Apple shareholders have done just fine, with Apple and ExxonMobil today changing places back and forth as the U.S. company with the highest market cap. Yet this has been a long process of product design, introduction and success.

The Economist chimes in by warning against elevating other stakeholders to the current position of share owners:

The era of “Jack Welch capitalism” may be drawing to a close, predicted Richard Lambert, the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in a speech last month. When “Neutron Jack” (so nicknamed for his readiness to fire employees) ran GE, he was regarded as the incarnation of the idea that a firm’s sole aim should be maximising returns to its shareholders. This idea has dominated American business for the past 25 years, and was spreading rapidly around the world until the financial crisis hit, calling its wisdom into question. Even Mr Welch has expressed doubts: “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he said last year.

Yet this need not mean that the veneration of shareholder value is wrong, and should be replaced by worship at the altar of some other business deity. Most of those preaching reverence for other stakeholders concede that the two are usually not mutually exclusive, and indeed, often mutually reinforcing.

Jack Welch clarifies that supposed advocacy of short-term shareholder value isn’t his real position:

Look, the job of a leader and his or her team is to deliver to commitments in the short term while investing in the long-term health of the business. Bottom line: That’s management. Good managers know how to eat today and dream about tomorrow at the same time. Any fool can just deliver in the short term by squeezing, squeezing, squeezing. Similarly, just about anyone can lie back and dream, saying, “Come see me in several years, I’m working on our long-term strategy.” Neither one of these approaches will deliver sustained shareholder value. You have to do both.