Welcome to The Faster Times update. In today's edition, we bring you the Rapture, sins of the father, business with China, the future for Netflix, and the women of Game of Thrones. Enjoy!

It boggles my mind that, as a nation, our support for free speech completely outweighs our acceptance of freedom. We are more concerned about our kids being exposed to bare boobs and cigarettes than we are about assholes telling them that they’re going to die tomorrow. We grown-ups can make all the funnies about post-rapture looting and job openings that we want to, but I bet many children will be lying awake tonight, wondering if there will be school on Monday, or if they’ll perish in flames. (Do the schools close for hellfire, or just snow? What about alternate-side parking?)

A few days before Christmas 1979, I was doing what I always did during those glorious days when I was on vacation from school and home alone: snooping around in my mother’s bedroom. Back then, I was a latchkey kid anyway, so I guess it was no big deal that I was home without supervision. And I didn’t mind. Having the house all to myself meant that I could read all day undisturbed, look up interesting names in the white pages of the phone book (don’t ask), and snoop around in my mother’s room. I went through her drawers, tried her perfumes (all of them), dressed up in her clothes and high heels, and searched for my Christmas presents. They were usually under her bed, so I always saved that spot for last. This particular Christmas, I pulled out a long, white, rectangular JC Penney gift box and frowned.

The Carol Bartz approach has apparently been to take Yahoo’s Chinese partner’s word at face value and be tricked out of an incredibly high-potential business, Alibaba’s “Paypal of China” subsidiary called Alipay. The company just found out that the control of that asset was transferred away from them back in 2009. Alibaba clearly pulled a fast one on Yahoo – on Carol’s watch. An epic embarrassment and serious fuel for David Einhorn should he make his new large stake an activist platform.

We all love Netflix Instant. Where else can we watch Rob Schneider movies and episodes of Dark Shadows until 6 am? Well, according to a report issued by a broadband research firm called Sandvine, all of that love is adding up to some major Internet bogarting..

I’m a total newbie when it comes to Game of Thrones. I haven’t read the books (yet), but I can tell you right now, I’m hooked. One of the aspects of the show that I particularly enjoy is the strong female characters. Certainly, compelling heroines are not uncommon in the fantasy genre, but on GoT, the feminine guile, perseverance, and viciousness often powerfully eclipse that of their male counterparts. This may change as the show progresses, but from what I’ve seen so far, I would not want to be on the bad side of any of these ladies.