Everyone knows by now that Joe Biden salted his introduction of President Obama at the signing of the health care bill with a comment he thought was off-mic: “This is a big f**** deal.”

The Brian Lehrer Show has asked listeners to submit haikus about health care reform using Biden’s faux pas as the middle line. Some submissions:

Hey, Blue Cross Blue Shield
This is a big —-ing deal.
But I’m still on hold?

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No filibuster
This is a big —ing deal
Majority rules!

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Joe to Obama:
This is a big —-ing deal
Please cover hairplugs

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Thank you for health care.
This is a big f**ing deal.
I can sleep at night.

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No health CARE reform
This is a big f&&king deal!
Parasites win big.

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Three days ago we posted an editorial from David Frum’s web site called “Waterloo,” in which the conservative pundit asserted that Republicans had committed an enormous tactical error in refusing to negotiate with Democrats on the health care bill.

Now Frum has lost his job at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Frum posted the news on his web site yesterday.

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The advertising, marketing, and media blog Thought Gadgets posts on a dust-up between users on the Nestle fan page on Facebook and a company rep. The Nestle page has been the target of an online anti-deforestation campaign by Greenpeace, as described here by the site Web Strategy, which also lays out a response plan for companies experiencing this type of social media attack.

Nestle’s Facebook meltdown

Oops. Nestle, or whoever runs their Facebook fan page, stepped on a social media landmine this weekend with this update:

Nestle: To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic – they will be deleted. Fri at 2:26am

Nestle received 190 complaints within 24 hours on Facebook, and thousands of tweets reaching hundreds of thousands of consumers. You see, the surest way to tick off users of social media is to delete their comments. Yes, by the old standards of 20th century law, brands have a right to protect their intellectual property. But social media comprises fluid networks of users sharing and retweeting and mashing up material. Brands no longer command media channels or the spread of memes; if you want to win, you have to give users room to play.

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FraudBytes, maintained by an accounting professor and accounting PhD student, aggregates news reports on corporate governance, corruption, and general white collar malfeasance. There are 43 posts alone on Bernie Madoff, including this one on a recent Wall Street Journal article about Madoff’s being beaten in prison.

The earnest tone of the blog is typified by this comment:

“It’s tragic that fraud perpetrators have to learn critical lessons of life the hard way all the while leaving a wake of suffering victims behind them as they eventually enter a life of misery themselves. Fraud may pay in the short run but it never pays in the long run!”

Great Gawker article called “The Eight Types of People to Unfollow on Twitter or Defriend on Facebook” drew this user comment:

Anyone do any defriending or been defriended due to opinions on the health care legislation?

Found on The Awl:

Salon readers respond to an article Hipsters on food stamps, subtitled “They’re young, they’re broke, and they pay for organic salmon with government subsidies. Got a problem with that? ”

Comments:

I have no problem with anyone who needs assistance, but come on… Those grocery stores already charge a premium for everyday items compares to the local A&P/Publix/Etc. Have some common sense to try to save some money…. Especially if it isn’t your money.

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At one time I was working so doesn’t that mean my taxes went to pay for government subsidies too? And now that I’m down can’t I get some help? And enjoy my organic conflict free coffee beans while i’m at it? I’ll be back on the neverending hamster wheel of working life again …

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Don’t these people have families? One of them is from Westchester. Almost all of them managed to, somehow, finance a post-graduate education. They live in “artsy,” “hip” (read: expensive) parts of town (are they on Section-8?). Yet, somehow, they can’t manage to feed themselves?

Of course people are going to be pissed that they’re busting their asses every day in real jobs so that some douchebag can satisfy his “flexitarian” gourmet diet. Did it ever cross their minds to look for a second job – say at McDonald’s or Home Depot or in janitorial services – so they could afford to satisfy their gourmet palate, instead of relying on government? Or do they seriously expect to be able to afford that kind of lifestyle working in the art/poetry world?

Of course, its entirely possible this is all some grand attempt at irony.

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Normally, the only time I am interested in currency policy is when I look into my wallet and wonder where mine went. But here’s an interesting series of posts on what to do about the artificially low rate of China’s renminbi, which the country keeps pegged to the rate of the U.S. dollar. By keeping the renminbi’s exchange rate against the dollar low, the cheap cost of Chinese goods is maintained, making it harder for U.S. manufacturers to compete.

A common view is that the U.S. can’t tick off China by pressing them on this issue, because China finances so much U.S. debt, which, in case you haven’t heard, the country has run up a lot of. Recently, New York Times columnist (and Nobel economics prize winner) Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed called Taking on China. Krugman argues that we have nothing to lose in confronting our No. 1 banker over its harmful weak-currency policy.

A chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Message: Stay in school! (If you can afford it.)

I have to say I have tested people with this riddle myself, only with two less degrees of separation:

What is the chain of events that connect the Borg — the evil cyber-bio villains of “Star Trek” fame — and health care reform.

The blog a grammar asks and answers this in a post called unsung heroes of healthcare reform.

This morning, for reasons that are PERSONAL and MINE,* I wound up watching “I, Borg,” the 1992 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the crew picks up a wounded Borg and nurses him back to health. Also they name him Hugh, he becomes friends with Geordi, and over the course of several colloquys about humans, individuality, and friendship, he learns to use the word “I” and concludes that “resistance is … not futile?”

But consider the following chain of events:

1. The deprogramming of Hugh from collective Borg to individual “I,” in this episode, sets the precedent for the 1997 introduction of Seven of Nine, the ex-Borg crew member on Star Trek: Voyager.

2. The 1997 casting of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine surely changed the course of her 1999 divorce from Illinois politician Jack Ryan.

3. In 2004, Jack Ryan sought to replace retiring Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald, and won the Republican primary, but withdrew from the race after details of his divorce were made public, including a bunch of stuff about maybe trying to pressure his wife into swinging or public S&M. “We did go to one avant-garde nightclub in Paris,” he said, “which was more than either one of us felt comfortable with.” (When in doubt, blame the arts and the French; they’re just freaky like that.)

4. His withdrawal left one Barack Obama running basically unopposed, except by Alan Keyes (who doesn’t count because c’mon, Alan Keyes).

5. You can take it from there.

So, after the fashion of the butterfly that flaps its wings and causes a hurricane on the other side of the globe, I — as someone who looks forward to one day purchasing fuller health coverage on a standardized exchange — would like to say KUDOS TO YOU, HUGH THE ADOLESCENT BORG WHO LEARNED TO SAY “I,” for your hand in this historic reform.