I'm a Hoe

Look Closely

2011-10-28T13:14:00.004-04:00

http://www.myvidster.com/video/3110656/Footage_of_Scott_Olsen_being_shot_by_Police_at_Occupy_Oakland

At :29 Scott Olsen pulls something out of his right pocket. The position of his hand is as if he is holding a pistol. Then he appears to cock it with his left hand. Then a woman walks in front of him and blocks the view. Was there a gun found anywhere near him after he fell? Would the other protestors admit it if he did? I would really like to know what exactly he pulled out of his pocket and if the police thought it looked like a gun too. The look on Olsen's face was the gaze of a man in a standoff waiting for his moment of draw his weapon. This is certainly an unpopular suggestion, but cold objectivity has never been popular.

The First Amendment protects the right of people to assemble for peaceful and lawful purposes. The police have every right to act against people who have become unlawful and refuse to obey laws. The government may prohibit people from knowingly associating in groups that engage and promote illegal activities. The Occupy Oakland protestors were definitely becoming unlawful and promoting illegal actions.

It is unfortunate that so many otherwise intelligent people allow their emotions and rationale to be manipulated by media biases. Why can't they think for themselves and look at events with a discerning eye? Or is it that they just really aren't all that intelligent?

Abundant Life

2011-06-20T10:10:00.003-04:00

Last night I was watching the lightning bugs, and there were so many that they looked like the camera flashes in the stadium when the Superbowl Halftime Show begins. It was so surreal and beautiful that I found it difficult to keep looking.... it was like trying to look into the face of God.... a beauty so intense it might burn out my eyes.

The light show made me think about how abundant life is here and how it seems unfair that so many other parts of the world are dealing with death, destruction, and desolation. But I imagine that this is the natural ebb and flow of life around the globe. Sometimes I think that all those bugs flashing lights in the night are part of the tsunami of energy released into the world earlier this year. Everything is connected, right? And if the huge earthquake in Japan caused waves in groundwater thousands of miles away from it, then why couldn't all that energy vented from inside the earth have other waves of consequences across the planet?

The Man Comes Around

2011-04-27T18:44:00.000-04:00

(originally written 4-10-09 but never published)

Opening Introduction (Spoken part)

And I heard as it were the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying come and see and I saw
And behold a white horse

Song

There's a man going around taking names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down
When the Man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup?
Or disappear into the potter's ground
When the Man comes around

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling, voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks

Till Armageddon no shalam, no shalom
Then the father hen will call his chickens home
The wise man will bow down before the throne
And at His feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the Man comes around

Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still
Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still
Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still
Listen to the words long written down
When the Man comes around

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling and voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks

In measured hundred weight and penney pound
When the Man comes around.

Close (Spoken part)
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him.

"The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash

Lines on the Sphere

For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great,
You who distress the righteous and accept bribes
And turn aside the poor in the gate.
Therefore at such a time the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time.
Seek good and not evil, that you may live;
And thus may the LORD God of hosts be with you,
Just as you have said!
Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the gate!

Amos 5: 12-15

Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 5: 23-24

Do horses run on rocks?
Or does one plow them with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood

Amos 6: 12

(Okay, for the mathematicians and other science types, I know I'm taking liberties with this lines-and-spheres metaphor, but I think it works somewhat for my purposes.)

While the United States Constitution guarantees us the Freedom of Religion and forbids the establishment of a mandatory State Religion, too many postmodern "thinkers" have decided that the only way to protect these rules is to completely eliminate all religious influences from public life. Well, it should be logically obvious that such thinking clearly cannot be defended because it violates its own premise of Freedom. How can restricting the "free exercise" of religion in the public sphere be consistent with protecting any true Freedom? Some might object and insist that they are guaranteed some "freedom from religion" and that all public places should be free of any kind of religious symbolism or other influences, but that kind of 'reasoning' does not fit on a sphere where it does not intersect with other fully reasoned freedoms. How else can I make it obvious that one cannot violate a basic principle with such an exception? We know that parallel lines on a sphere will eventually always intersect, and this is not a flat world.

Basic principles and fundamental laws and liberties cannot be breached for the sake of "exceptions." And to favor or champion the exceptions at the expense of the basic and fundamental is inconsistent with reason, justice, fairness, and the rule of law.

An inconvenient reality for the postmodern Constitutional flatlanders is that our entire system of Freedoms is dependent upon the Christian concepts of morality. As Christ taught people how to live in peace and harmony with one another, and he insisted that all men treat each other with the same esteem and respect as themselves. He berated the leaders who did not live in accordance with these principles.

Jesus answered, "How terrible also for you teachers of the Law! You put onto people's backs loads which are hard to carry, but you yourselves will not stretch out a finger to help them carry those loads

Luke 11:46

"How terrible for you teachers of the Law! You have kept the key that opens the door to the house of knowledge; you yourselves will not go in, and you stop those who are trying to go in!"

Luke 11:52

It seems to me that the downfall of our Constitution (and arguably, our society) began with the illogical and errant Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education which used faulty sociological reasons for declaring that "separate is inherently unequal." Now, no one should confuse himself that I am defending racism or any kind of mandatory segregation. That is NOT my point and that does not fit anywhere on the Sphere of Freedom. My argument is that the very idea that 'separate cannot be equal' is completely wrong and unnecessary to assure equal freedoms. Racism is not an argument I am pursuing, and I will not engage in it at this time except to suggest that one look at the evidence of the last 40 or so years that shows us the steady decline in the quality of education and social conditions since the Court ruling. Usually such evidence speaks for itself.

Jesus Christ himself was arguing that separate IS equal - that all men are equal in the eyes of God (and should be in the eyes of the law) even if they are "separated" by the natural variations of life experience and conditions. And this idea is at the heart of our American psyche and soul:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

What that means is basically the same as what Jesus Christ taught his disciples about their own status in the world:

And there was an argument among them about which of them was the greatest. And he said, The kings of the Gentiles are lords over them, and those who have authority are given names of honour. But let it not be so with you; but he who is greater, let him become like the younger; and he who is chief, like a servant. For which is greater, the guest who is seated at a meal or the servant who is waiting on him? is it not the guest? but I am among you as a servant.

But you are those who have kept with me through my troubles; And I will give you a kingdom as my Father has given one to me, So that you may take food and drink at my table in my kingdom, and be seated like kings, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 22: 24-30

Of course, Jesus Christ required that men accept the judgment of God over the judgment of other men in order to have eternal life in heaven. While these are religious requirements, one cannot dismiss or deny the basic truth of equality within the statements. Our Founding Fathers knew, and assumed that others would know, the biblical basis of their own principles. However, it cannot be considered any kind of co-mingling of Church and State to have your basic principles founded in the truths that are shared by a religion. It is merely an intersection of the parallels on the sphere

I'm a Convert

2011-04-09T15:33:00.002-04:00

I just bought a MacBook Pro yesterday. The little Acer Aspire One netbook I've been using for a couple of years was just unable to perform some of the tasks I've needed, especially since I got a really good high-def camera for Christmas. My oldest got an iMac for Christmas and ever since I've been pondering the MacBook. When my daughter dropped her ipod touch (also a Christmas gift) and shattered the glass we took it to the Apple Store at West Town Mall to see if they could fix it. (I probably should add that I further damaged it when I took it apart to see if I could fix it myself.... after all I have replaced broken laptop screens by myself and thought maybe I could do the ipod too, ha.) They said they could trade it out for $149 but that she should take it home and synch all of her music and stuff before trading. So we went back yesterday for her to trade it and they surprised us by replacing it for free! Well, that kind of customer care was enough to sell me the MacBook. Even though Apple products are more expensive than their competition, those little things can make a big difference. Anyway, I do like the Mac very well so far. (Not to worry Windows/PC, I still like you too.)

Life Goes On

2011-03-17T19:00:00.003-04:00

Man, the words just don't come like they used to.

Ghost of Toolshed Present: Busy, busy, busy

2010-12-15T17:59:00.005-05:00

This picture intrigues me with its sense of work and industry and the shadows and shapes. It's some painting by a Depression Era artist who was paid by the government as part of the New Deal or something. There's a post about that here somewhere. The Lego-looking men are almost comical, but I guess their form also suggests the dehumanization of the world at that time. And who doesn't love Legos?

The present is the shortest period of time we experience because it's gone in a flash. All of a sudden it's the past, so it's really hard to justify spending too much of that precious present on talking about it instead of actually living it.. Time flies when you're having fun - or when you're too busy to know if you're having fun or not. Anyway, the future looms with its deadlines, responsibilities, and potentials that fuel the present. Speaking of presents, it's only 10 days until Christmas and Santa has lots of work to finish.

Merry Christmas to all!

Ghost of Toolshed Past

2010-11-13T09:50:00.004-05:00

Heh, time has flown by - I blame the accelerating universe. Or is that now an outdated idea? Anyway, revisiting the toolshed I have to admit it's a pretty funny little spot in the cyberverse. I did alright.

Blogging has fallen by the wayside as I have used my limited time on many home improvement/maintenance projects. It's amazing how so many things in a dwelling need attention. I've been ripping out carpet and putting down new flooring, installing new light fixtures, repairing minor plumbing leaks, tiling the kitchen walls, repainting rooms and ceilings, and some other things I can't recall at the moment. Well, it's all part of being a home-maker. And I just didn't even think about documenting it all with pictures and blogging. Ooops.

But above all of that, mothering my children has been the primary focus of my life. The oldest is now a high school freshman and is the "beast" of the quads (tenors) in the high school drumline. My daughter is now in middle school and has thankfully so far avoided the middle school problems her older brother had.
And the youngest is in 4th grade, and he is still full of many potentials that are yet to be cultivated.

So that's just a very brief review of the passing time.

Thank You Blogger

2010-07-27T10:43:00.002-04:00

.... for not dumping my sorry incommunicado self.

The inclination for putting thoughts into words in a blog seems to be trying to return. Well, I have some news anyway, for the moment.

I have another squamous cell carcinoma. This time on the other thigh. It will be cut out and checked for a clear boundary on Aug. 6. I'm trying not to get all freaked out and worried about some other cancers trying to spout elsewhere in and/or on my body, but I have looked up where else squamous cell cancers are prone to grow. It's time to get a good checkup and maybe some other tests just to keep an eye on things.

So, other than the country going all to hell around us, that's the state of the constitution.

Boo!

2010-03-03T17:00:00.003-05:00

Just haunting the old toolshed real quick....

Long Time, No Blog

2009-07-09T09:39:00.003-04:00

I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth.... sorry to disappoint anyone, LOL.

Life has been very full and active, and I guess I haven't had much blogging in me lately. It's just one of those phases or breaks, like a sabbatical or something. At least I don't have any family deaths or major illnesses to report. We're just trucking along trying to enjoy life and living.

I hope that Google or Blogger or whoever doesn't decide to suspend blogs that have been relatively inactive... I do anticipate having a renewed writing spirit at some point in the future.

Enjoy the summer, everyone!

WWJD

2009-06-12T22:01:00.003-04:00

Not even Jesus wanted a Pay Czar:

3 Jesus was eating in Bethany at the home of Simon, who once had leprosy, when a woman came in with a very expensive bottle of sweet-smelling perfume. After breaking it open, she poured the perfume on Jesus' head. 4 This made some of the guests angry, and they complained, "Why such a waste? 5 We could have sold this perfume for more than three hundred silver coins and given the money to the poor!" So they started saying cruel things to the woman.

6 But Jesus said: Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. 7 You will always have the poor with you. And whenever you want to, you can give to them. But you won't always have me here with you. 8 She has done all she could by pouring perfume on my body to prepare it for burial.

Mark 14:3-8

It's nobody's business what people do with the money they make. Even Jesus said that what looks like an indulgence to others looks very different to him. He was very thankful that this woman used her perfume because it was part of the "annointing" the dying. He probably saw the woman's kindness and generosity as a gift from God and as the sign that his demise was imminent. (Recall that the next thing that happens is Judas betraying him.)

Well, I just don't think that Obama really believes in Christian values. Some people think that's great, I guess, but his actions reveal that he is not looking at the world through Christ-like eyes. - Whatever problems people have with religion, I think that they are also not seeing the obvious fact that modern Christianity is a provider of guidelines for looking at the world in a way that is irrationally kind, generous, charitable, grateful, and loving. - Obama is acting like the people yelling at the woman for "wasting" her perfume. And it is this view of the world that drives his need to appoint all these control czars of every flavor.

Summer Break

2009-06-01T15:38:00.003-04:00

Now that school is out for the summer and the baseball season is winding down, I hope to have more time for blogging. It is not that there haven't been plenty of things to talk about. There is so much! And I have to confess that I've been a bit of a facebook "hoe" over the last several months. Well, it's a faster and more efficient way of keeping in touch with friends when time is tight. If you would like, send me a friend request.

A Must-See For Everyone

2009-05-12T09:05:00.001-04:00

"even makes the weather perfect every day"

Economy Blogging

2009-05-11T14:44:00.002-04:00

There just hasn't been much time for blogging this year, mostly due to the economic situation. It's really a simple equation: less money = more work = less leisure time.

There are just a few quick things I'd like to say.

Hypocrisy is so prevalent these days that it is nearly impossible to trust anyone. It surprises sometimes me when the honest truth is so hard to find and when honest, truthful words are suppressed or punished even by those who claim to promote them.

There are just flat-out mean people in the world and no amount of empathy or sympathy will help them.

For a large majority of people the more complicated questions of existence are trivial. This is just a fact and not some indictment against anyone or anything. Their time and energy are concerned with survival and living. (And that is why they are sometimes too easily manipulated by the "elites" who want to control them through fear and oppression.)

It is not "anti-science" to acknowledge the social realities and truths of our world. Just because something is sociological in nature does NOT make it less valuable or important. (Unless you live in a cave or other fantasyland and never interact with the real world.)

There is a lot of angst all around these days, but sometimes I doubt that it is really any more than there was at other times in history. There have been much worse times in the world than now.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T08:50:00.000-04:00

Lonely Places

2009-04-07T21:32:00.004-04:00

The Temptation of Jesus

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’
11 and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 4: 1-13

12 Once Jesus was in a town where there was a man who was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he threw himself down and begged him, "Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean!"
13 Jesus reached out and touched him. "I do want to," he answered. "Be clean!" At once the disease left the man. 14 Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice as Moses ordered."
15 But the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases.
16 But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.

Luke 5: 12-16

One Year Later

2009-04-01T22:08:00.002-04:00

The world has changed quite a bit since my dad died last April 1. I am sorry for all of my social inadequacies, especially the hermitness. Back in the old days in some cultures the grieving were allowed to be odd for a year or so. I feel pretty well beat up. I had hoped to have written a worthy eulogy by now, but the words just haven't happened. While losing my dad to cancer was painful, it might have been even worse to have seen him devastated by losing all of his retirement independence. His funds had already begun to drop in the year before he died. The coming market crash should have been more apparent to those who were gambling with his money. But I guess they figured they were getting-rich-quick and didn't care about the future.

I can hear him now talking about the anarchists and socialists throwing fits in London. "They hate capitalism but they love its money and technology." Socialism is just another get-rich-quick scheme, and it's a sham too. Without capitalism the socialists wouldn't have anything.

Dear House of Representatives,

2009-03-18T17:45:00.006-04:00

I want to remind you of your proper place in this nation. I recommend you read the Federalist Papers, specifically #57. For your convenience I'm including a very important excerpt from that paper:

I will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures, that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny. If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer: the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate any thing but liberty. Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the chords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people.

In my own "vigilant and manly spirit" I am stating that unfortunately the "genius of the system" has been undermined by itself and its members doing all of the things that Hamilton/Madison said it shouldn't do, and also by the people tolerating everything but liberty. (a problem that may soon be remedied by sufficient "populist outrage")

As some are fretting about the sanctity of the "rule of law" I am just saying that the law has fallen by its own excess. The rule of law is only as strong, trustworthy, and incorruptible as its makers. I am standing in a separate place from many of the people with whom I normally agree about the fundamental principles of government... some who want to believe that the rule of law should be respected unconditionally. However, be it by the virtue of my rebellious heredity or some other influence, I cannot agree that the rule of law is always untouchable and inviolate.

As for the whole AIG issue, I do believe that all of you Representatives (and Senators) should apply the same punishments upon yourselves as you wish to apply to the employees who received unjust bonuses, etc. You are just as guilty as any of them, if not moreso.

The "populist outrage" is not restricted to, or even primarily directed at, some unfortunate and incompetent financial services employees of AIG, and you would be wise to recognize your own corruption and incompetence and to rectify yourselves immediately.

With much vigilant and manly ;-) spirit,
Vicious Momma

PS Another reminder for you, Article 1, Section 9 or the US Constitution: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter

2009-03-16T17:40:00.003-04:00

Take 30 seconds to watch this commercial featuring the Buttertons. The giant globs of the "nutritious" butter substitute all over the modern food looks almost as excessive as the butter sticks on the retro food. Sorry, but that ad is promoting just as bad 'overconsumption' of their product as they are trying to parody. Maybe it's just me, but I would fire that advertising agency. ;-)

Depression Era Art

2009-03-15T21:21:00.003-04:00

This 1934 painting amuses me somehow:

Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum which is opening a new exhibit of Depression Era Art in order to capitalize on the "Great Recession" as they call our current economic conditions. Kind of clever, I guess.

So you have this state-sponsored artwork that shows the messy consequences of "progress" and productivity and growth. Well, you have to use energy to actually make things happen so it seems a natural thing for Tofel to paint and "honor" the factories as an important part of the scene. I'm pretty sure that a state-sponsored "Great Recession" artist would not be allowed to promote such politically incorrect things as smoke stacks. ;-)

Dear Timothy Geithner,

2009-03-13T16:59:00.001-04:00

I've heard that you are having a lot of trouble finding people to work with/for you. While I have strong reservations and questions about you and your methods I would like to offer my services to the Treasury because I'm sure that I could bring some valuable and effective contributions to the work at hand. I am not an attorney nor an economist nor an accountant by official title or degrees, but I have many years of experience in the real life administration of a successful small business. And my salary/compensation requirements are quite reasonable... I would do the job for the cost of just one of Nancy Pelosi's private military jet trips home from DC. And it would be nice to get all the usual basic government employee benefits too.

I do have to say one other thing. My offer to work for the Treasury is null and void if it requires any kind permanent mark on my person that would indicate an allegiance to anyone or anything other than the United States Constitution and my God-given conscience. I hope that won't be an obstacle to your consideration.

Sincerely,
Rae Ann McCurry

PS I don't have any unresolved tax issues and plan to file on time this year.

For What It's Worth

2009-03-03T19:21:00.002-05:00

A classic anti-establishment song that is today just as applicable, or maybe even moreso, than it was in the late 1960s.

Take it to the streets on April 1.

Cowards and Monkeys

2009-02-19T11:50:00.003-05:00

Surely everyone by now has heard about Eric Holder, the black Attorney General, calling the USA a "nation of cowards" in matters of race and also about the New York Post cartoon of a the crazy stimulus monkey being shot by police. Well, I could say a lot about it, but I'll resist at this moment. Except for this... it takes a good bit of courage (the opposite of cowardice) to publish political satire, but it takes a coward to place blame on everyone else instead of taking responsibility for his own hardships and struggles. What if John McCain, or any other white guy, had said the same thing as Holder? He'd be lynched, or at least figuratively shot like a crazy, over-stimulated monkey (or the cartoonist who drew one).

Priceless

2009-02-17T18:51:00.002-05:00

There is a lot going on in real life these days that has kept me from blogging very much. You see, unlike the Stimulus Zombies, we have to actually work and take care of things in our lives.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T17:17:00.000-05:00

"Love Song" by Tesla

Free Bird

2009-02-07T10:21:00.003-05:00

"Cause I'm as free as a bird now
And this bird you never change"
(when I was little I used to think "change" was "chain" which still makes sense)

Change I Can Believe In

America used to be the Land of the Free, but more and more of our individual freedoms are being eroded and surrendered in these current times. I'm certain that our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves to see how easily the "people" are allowing the government to violate our basic, guaranteed freedoms that they devoted their lives to securing...

So many people have become so lazy that they think it is easier to let the government take care of them and make all of their decisions for them. Well, fine if they want that, but I DON'T. Here is a change I can believe in:

We should follow the example of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Divorce and allow our country to split into two. We could have one that wants to be socialist and the other that doesn't. Let's call them the USSA (United Socialist States of America) and the FSA (Free States of America). It would be pretty easy to find the geographical boundaries with the "left coast" joining with the upper midwest and northeastern regions to be the USSA, and the remainder becoming the FSA. If some are in a border area and don't agree with which side their state is becoming, then they can relocate.

There is enough unhappiness in the populace that many are grumbling and wishing for such a change. But we feel powerless. We feel betrayed, and we are in disbelief at our fellow citizens who are so willing to hand over so much power to the corrupt and bloated government that is exactly what our Founding Fathers rebelled against. It's shameful.

I'm ashamed of the "people" who are ruining our country and our Freedom, in the name of what? Economic security? Financial gain? Comfort? Power? All of the above. Sure, it might look and feel "easier" for the government to pay for all your healthcare, education, housing, food, air you breathe... But just remember who is the government and what those people are really after. They don't really care about your health and well-being. They only care about staying in their positions of power, influence, and control. They don't really care about fairness and equality.

It's not really possible or realistic to enforce some artificially created "fairness" in life. Life and Nature just aren't fair. The probabilistic nature of life is the reason that people vary so much in their life circumstances, such as wealth/poverty, health/illness, etc. In all its glory and accomplishment, science has yet to devise a way to control fate and the probabilities that determine how our lives turn out. Try as they might to tell us that they and we can control the climate and other forces of Nature, they are only engaging in wishful thinking and delusion.

Likewise, communism and socialism are creations of man that try to enforce some kind of artificial fairness and control over life and its circumstances. Sorry, but that will always fail. No matter how hard someone tries to make life "fair" for everyone, Nature will topple them. A personal example - it's terribly unfair that I've already lost my parents to illness while many others my age still have their hearty parents and can't even get along with them. No amount of government funding or other human intervention would have reversed these outcomes. I'm not asking for pity. I'm just giving a solid real-life example of the unfairness and uncontrollability of life.

Well, what do I know anyway? I'm just really sick and tired of all the sourpusses out there trying to tell us what we can and can't do, should and shouldn't think, what to buy or sell, how much money we are allowed to have, what we should and shouldn't eat, drink, smoke, or otherwise consume, and every other little aspect of our lives that we are supposed to be able to decide for ourselves. I'm over it and I'm ready for the Second Revolution.

Bill of Rights and Congressional Violations of the Constitution

2009-02-05T17:07:00.004-05:00

If I had my way, people couldn't vote or even graduate from high school unless they could recite these words...

The first ten amendments to the US Constitution which were designed to protect our individual rights as citizens but which are at this very moment under very serious threat by the government that they are supposed to be limiting:

Bill of Rights

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof*; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble*, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

*Following is an excerpt of the actual text of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" which specifies that any institution of higher learning that receives funding from this "stimulus" program CANNOT use the money for improvement of any facilities that are used for religious study, worship, or other religious "missions". This is obviously a violation of the First Amendment which states "Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof [of religion]."

GREEN SCHOOL REQUIREMENT.—An institution of higher education receiving a subgrant under this section shall use not less than 25 percent of such subgrant to carry out projects for modernization, renovation, or repair that are certified, verified, or consistent with the applicable provisions of—
(A) the LEED Green Building Rating System;
(B) Energy Star;
(C) the CHPS Criteria;
(D) Green Globes; or
(E) an equivalent program adopted by the State or the State higher education agency.

(3) PROHIBITED USES OF FUNDS.—No funds awarded under this section may be used for—
(A) the maintenance of systems, equipment, or facilities, including maintenance associated with any permissible uses of funds described in paragraph (1);
(B) modernization, renovation, or repair of stadiums or other facilities primarily used for athletic contests or exhibitions or other events for which admission is charged to the general public;
(C) modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities
(i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or
(ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission; or
(D) construction of new facilities.

Pimp My Ride

2009-01-29T18:31:00.004-05:00

Well.... I did end up getting car, but it isn't American and it cost only a fraction of a brand new American car....

It is a 2005 Scion (made by Toyota) xB:

Pimped grills.

Thumpin' pimped amps and speakers. (but I kind of like that, lol)

Isn't it cute? It's my first foreign car. The guy who had it before us did all the cool customizations.

The main reason we got it, though, is because it gets 30-35 mpg which is more than twice what the beastly Expedition gets (about 14 mpg). If one is so-inclined he can accuse us of "going green", but in my world green = $$$ saved and not "saving the planet." ;-) We still have the Expedition (the beast) and still need it for hauling around all the extra kids that seem to congregate here. The xB only seats 5 compared to 8 with the beast. And it is paid for too.

Buying a car these days is almost as much hassle as buying a house, even when you pay with cash instead of getting a loan. You'd think if someone came in with a stack of cash they'd skip all the crap, but no, they still have all those forms and formalities. Blame it on the government. And it's just too bad for all the UAW people and the US automakers that we didn't buy one of their over-priced products. As I mentioned previously, we've already paid them enough (in bailouts) for a new car without actually getting anything.

And I finally got to do something that I've been thinking about for a while. I decided that the next time I have to fill out any kind of form that asked for "race" or "ethnicity" I would check the "other" box and specify that I am a "White Native American." Well, how many generations and centuries does it take to be considered "native"? I figure my people have been here pretty much since the beginning of the white "colonization" so probably I'm genetically separated enough from most Europeans to be considered ethnically distinct.

A Little Car Talk

2009-01-25T17:48:00.003-05:00

Well, not that we really want or need to take on any new car payments right now, but since we are patriotic Americans we were thinking that it might be good to stimulate the eonomy and buy new a car (my birthday is also an excuse). So I started looking online at all the different American auto-makers' sites to see what is out there. Honestly, there wasn't much to interest me. Mainly, I am not looking to replace my family car, a 2003 Expedition which I still like a lot and it's paid for, or my fun car, the Corvette. If I'm going to get a car right now it has to be something really cool and worth the trouble of a new payment.

I do like the Cadillac Escalade, but it's basically the same thing as the Expedition and I don't really want/need another SUV. I also like the Saturn Sky, but it's pretty much the same as the Corvette. The only other car that looked good was the Dodge Challenger. I like its retro late 60s - early 70s design:

So David and the boys went to look at them today while I stayed home to enjoy some peace and quiet. ;-) There must not be too much of a crisis for Dodge if they are expecting people to pay $50,000 for something. Now, I appreciate that the Challenger is their "special" model, but come on... I could buy a brand new Corvette for $50K if I wanted to spend that much. Hello? Earth calling Dodge.

The dealership was closed because it is Sunday so they couldn't talk to any salesmen, but if I had been there and they had been open they would have gotten a real good talking to about the reality. They must not be hurting too bad for sales and money if they think they are going to sell anything for that much money right now. Besides, they've already gotten a bunch of our tax money so that amount should automatically be deducted from the prices. If they really need to make a sale then they would just have to take what they could get. I mean really.

So I won't be buying a new car right now, and so there is that much less stimulation of the economy. Sorry, but if Dodge or GM or whoever is really interested in moving some inventory then they're just gonna have to do better than $50 f-in' K for some nostalgic ride.

41

2009-01-25T04:57:00.001-05:00

It's a nice prime number, if you're interested in that kind of stuff.

Since it's my birthday #41 today here are a couple of funky videos for a funky kind of number.

Say groove sucker (groove sucker)

I'm the lyrical gangster...

Like Thoughts Inside a Dream

2009-01-23T18:19:00.000-05:00

I haven't been a good blogger so far this year. There just haven't been a lot of words or something to say... Not that there isn't plenty going on in the world, but somehow it's been better to be insulated from all of that and to concern myself with more immediate and provincial matters.

Anyway, I'm just in a quiet phase, I guess kind of like the sun sometimes, but maybe there will be some new activity soon. I wouldn't mind a little warming myself... ;-)

Thirteen

2009-01-20T06:05:00.000-05:00

I am now officially the mother of a teenager. My oldest son turns 13 today, but he has seemed at least 15 for a couple of years now. At 5'8" he is already half a foot taller than me, and when he answers the phone everyone thinks he's his father because of his deep voice. He's always been pretty mature for his age.

It's a little freaky for me to watch him grow into a man so quickly because I wasn't around many boys during my early teens. And most of the boys I knew then were ice skaters and not particularly masculine. ;-) (though there were a couple of exceptions) So the beginnings of a moustache growing on a 12 year old boy seems a little startling. I have to admit to being kind of in awe of this man-boy who came out of my body 13 years ago. I gave birth to this wonder.

He's very popular at school and that's a new thing to me too. It's nice in way that he has so many friends, but I've also learned that the popular boys are usually not so popular with the teachers. Maybe he has an attitude or air about him at school that they don't like, but I know that he's respectful to them. He's also much smarter than his grades reflect. In school these days, more than when I was in school, the report cards reflect conformity and behavior much more than academic accomplishment and learning. The teachers don't even seem to notice if a student is actually smart or not.

As I've mentioned here before, my son is a kind of musical prodigy. He can pick up any instrument and play it. He's teaching himself to play the guitar, and he continues to play the piano. Any song he hears he can play it. It's amazing to me because I have absolutely no musical ability at all. But I love to hear him practice, and the sound of music in the house is delightful to me.

Well, Happy 13th Birthday to my son! And let's hope that the teenage years won't be too hard. ;-)

A Devil Put Aside For Me

2009-01-12T15:41:00.004-05:00

My animus has been drained by all of the events of the last few years, especially last year. I'm speaking of the Jungian idea of the "life energy" that keeps us going. Jung was basically describing the psychology of shamanism, so if you think he was a crackpot then I guess I am one too. ;-) His "science" wasn't that of experiments and formulas but of observation, perception, and intuition. Maybe he was more of a philosopher than a scientist, but does it really matter so much?

Human nature has changed little, if at all, since humans have become literate. We're no better or smarter, really, than the people who lived thousands of years ago. Maybe we are a little cleaner and more comfortable, but ultimately we have not eliminated our biological and animalistic instincts and urges. Through neither "behavioral" therapy nor "cognitive" therapy have we succeeded in defeating our basic nature. And why should we anyway?

Even the Bible tells us this:

The Futility of All Endeavor

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
3 What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?
4 A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever.
5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.
6 Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.
7 All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow again.
8 All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
9 That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.
11 There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur, There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come later still.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

For those who think the Bible is only full of stories of an angry, immature God, well, they just don't know.

I need to regain my health and well-being, whatever it takes. The drive of self-preservation has kicked in, so to speak. So much of my life has been spent on others - helping them heal, helping them die, helping them with whatever demons they were fighting. This is the job of a shaman after all. But even the shaman needs healing sometimes. There is a time for all things. The Bible tells us this too:

A Time for Everything

1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
2 A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.
9 What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 10 I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-10

The hunter has to hunt. The cat has to prowl. The cougar has to prey. The trickster has to trick, and the joker has to joke. Jung would agree.

"Ten Years Gone" Led Zeppelin

A Big Idea

2009-01-07T10:37:00.002-05:00

I'll have to think about this a lot more, but I've been reminded that one of my wishes has been to have some kind of center for advanced thinking and creativity, or some such thing. Well, since the economy sucks there isn't any funding for establishing a whole institute right now. But, it might be possible to have a short retreat, or very casual "conference," just to test this idea. Why not? Our place is big enough for a few people and we have the pool and wireless internet and it's pretty and quiet (except for the children sometimes) here which is conducive to thinking and stuff. I don't know. Maybe no one would want to come here? I'm not really much of a hostess and do have some social anxieties, but probably the kinds of people I'd invite wouldn't be too high maintenance or demanding. After all, the point would be to just hang out and talk about whatever comes up and to have time and space for writing or artwork or calculating or otherwise exploring ideas. Hmm, maybe it could be this summer. Would anyone be interested in this kind of thing?

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

2009-01-04T12:59:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! I've been away from the computer a lot over the holidays, which were nice. There is no big news and that's okay. Maybe this year will be much more peaceful and easy than last year. The world is in pretty sorry shape in a lot of ways, but we can hope for recovery and relief...

My resolution for 2009 is to take better care of myself. I mean that physically as well as emotionally. Some of the ways to do it are the usual things like exercise and eating right, but also doing things like clearing away the burdens and other clutter in my life. Life is too short to spend it feeling bad and agonizing over things.

I hope everyone can look past the terrible economy and other worldly concerns and try to make their own little part of the world a little better. I know this all sounds kind of trite but hey, sometimes the familiar is a relief from the egregious.

I've Seen Better Days

2008-12-30T13:47:00.003-05:00

The dust never settles. If that's what anyone is waiting for then it will be a long wait. Might as well take a deep breath and go. Shit or get off the pot, as the old folks said. And Mae West once said, "He who hesitates is a fool." Sure, that goes against that other famous saying about fools rushing in where angels fear to go, but not all of us are angels. ;-) And for some of us, life has conditioned us to be "jumpy" (quick to act/react) with a constant stream of big events.

2008 has been an absolutely brutal year. I hate to sound like a whiny cry-baby, but objectively looking at it all it's pretty obvious that life has been hard. Not the average hard anyway. But I don't really want to revisit all of those details.

On the other hand, life's been good, and I really shouldn't complain too much. I guess it's a matter of finding some balance between feeling grateful for an interesting life and feeling beat up and permanently scarred from so much excitement. Well, it's just a fact of life. I've seen better days...

May we all have a peaceful and healthy 2009. Happy New Year!

JibJab 2008 Review

2008-12-27T09:55:00.001-05:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T10:47:00.002-05:00

Vicious Momma v. Knox County Schools, part 2

2008-12-23T12:22:00.003-05:00

This is the follow-up to "Knox County School Violates Fourth Amendment."

Knox County Schools apparently decided that they have the authority to unreasonably seize personal property and to impound it 15 miles away from the school where it was seized. My son's cell phone fell out of his pocket at school the other day and a teacher saw him pick it up, so she seized it and sent it to the school office. Okay, fine. I understand that cell phones are not allowed to be used in class. But he wasn't using it. He was only picking it up and looking at it to make sure it wasn't damaged from falling. Anyway, I don't have a problem with them keeping it in the school office until I can pick it up, but I do have a problem with them sending it off the school grounds to some kind of "security" office, which is essentially the county's school police station.

I am probably overreacting to this situation that is ultimately pretty trivial, except that I just can't see it as trivial when our Constitutional rights are violated, even in regards to something like a cell phone. I understand that they have rules, and that they are necessary. But all of this unreasonable seizing personal "effects" and then imposing excessive and unusual punishments is just plain WRONG.

I can't see how anyone could really believe that requiring a parent to drive a 30 mile round trip to pick up a simple cell phone that was seized merely for its own existence is not excessive punishment. And "cruel and unusual" too since it was very rainy, windy and bad holiday traffic going to pick it up in the middle of one of Knoxville's worst public housing slums (where the SS security office is located). While this 30 mile round trip to pick up our illegally seized phone was not a hardship for us in the purely physical sense, there are many people for whom it would be excessively inconvenient and a hardship to do so. Some people don't have easy transportation for such things and some can't take time away from work.

It is obviously a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of "excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishments" to make a parent go to this much trouble to reclaim a cell phone that was already practically stolen by the school. Imagine if you replace "cell phone" with a $100 bill. Clearly it is an illegal theft for the school personnel to seize that money, send it away, and require a parent to go out of their way to retrieve it. Any other personal property is no different from the money and no one would stand for their money to be extorted in this way. Even people who have their cars towed or otherwise taken away for some "offense" have to sign for it. The school basically stole our phone. The school personnel are guilty of extortion and coercion.

And while those issues are big enough for a serious complaint, there is even more to the story. When I called the security office to make sure the phone was there before driving all that way to get it, I also asked for directions since I'm not so familiar with that part of town. I simply asked "where exactly is the office located?" After some vague and useless information like "in northwest Knoxville" and "off Western Avenue" from the woman on the phone, who I am assuming was the secretary, Debra Dexter, I asked if she could give me directions. If her reply had not been so incompetent and lazy I might not have been quite as angry about having to go there. This woman is a "public servant" and is paid with my tax dollars so I don't think it is unreasonable to expect her to be somewhat helpful. But no, this is what she said, "Oh, it's just too hard to describe how to get here so look it up on one of those map things on your computer." Wow. My tax dollars at "work."

There are some other small, annoying, hypocritical details about her and the other "security" staff. At the front door of the office which had a big "No Smoking" sign, there was a group of men, some of them cops, standing there smoking! Right in front of the entrance with the no smoking sign. Typical! In the office I asked why they felt it was necessary to send phones to this location, but of course, they would not give me a good answer and only continued to coerce me to sign the form stating that I was picking up our phone. I couldn't contain my anger then and did tell them that the policies are stupid and violate our 4th and 8th Amendment rights and that this isn't Nazi Germany. And now they know our names and we'll be blacklisted forever.

And you know, how do we know that they didn't examine our phone, look at the personal information contained in it, copy the SIM card information, or any other invasion of our privacy? If they think nothing of illegally seizing it then what's to stop them from further violating our rights by copying private information and so on? All of this was done without "probable cause" and without any kind of warrants, and so why should I expect that they are respecting ANY of our rights if they are so unscrupulously violating the 4th and 8th Amendments?

The Superintendent and many others will be receiving letters of complaint from me. If they do not change their policy regarding seizure of personal property then perhaps some further action will be required. I really don't want to start some big thing because I am a private person and I don't want to be dissected like other citizens who have questioned authority (Joe the plumber, for instance). But I refuse to be intimidated, extorted, coerced, bullied, violated, and abused by the people who are paid with my tax dollars to serve me and everyone else. They do not have the authority to violate my rights, my kids' rights, or anyone else's rights. Period.

Knox County School Violates Fourth Amendment

2008-12-18T10:59:00.003-05:00

Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Carter Middle School in Knox County, TN, has violated my and my son's Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable seizure of personal property. His cell phone was confiscated by the School Gestapo and has been sent to the County's "central security office," whatever the hell that is. I understand that cell phones and so on are a distraction at school and that students are not supposed to use them during school hours. However, my son was not using his phone. It fell out of his jacket pocket, and because it had been unintentionally left on, a teacher confiscated it and sent it to the office. I went in this morning to pick it up, and that's when they told me it had been sent off because this was his "second offense." The first was when he had my video camera at school which was also confiscated and demanded that I delete any "unauthorized" photos/videos he might have taken at school. What country is this anyway? Seems like Nazi Germany or Totalitarian USSR. Outrageous!

I was furious but did not make a scene. I've found it is unnecessary to do that because I am capable of expressing my displeasure with my eyes only.

Now I have this dilemma. Do I just do as they expect and cower to their unreasonable policies? This is surely what they want everyone to do... they want us to be intimidated and comply with their oppressive methods. They don't want us to question this erosion of our fundamental rights and protections. That cell phone is our personal property which they have very unreasonably seized and impounded. Clearly and obviously, their actions are way beyond a reasonable response to the "offense."

I think that goes against the Eighth Amendment:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Yeah, I really do think that requiring me to drive all the way down to some office near the old Rule High School, which is in the middle of one of the worst and most dangerous public housing projects in the city, to reclaim my wrongfully seized personal property is an excessive, cruel, and unusual punishment for my son's trivial mistake.

I need a Constitutional attorney. I swear. If people can sue McDonald's for hot coffee and so forth, then I should be able to sue the Knox County Schools for violating our Fourth and Eighth Amendment Constitutional rights. I think we need to take this all the way to the Supreme Court.

F-theory Bottom-up Phenomenology

2008-12-16T11:26:00.004-05:00

Sorry, this isn't really about theoretical physics. ;-)

(image borrowed from http://www.geocities.com/comicpostcards/BigButt.html)

The Black Parade

2008-12-13T10:05:00.002-05:00

I'm actually feeling a little better today, so maybe this is just an exercise of some word association game inside my head. Or an exorcizing of some darkness...

Welcome to the Black Parade

Paint It Black

Black

Black Hole Sun

Back to Black

Back in Black

SSDD

2008-12-12T14:20:00.005-05:00

- Myspace Layouts,Graphics, and Comments!

(same shit, different day)

Nobody volunteered to help me with my coup d'etat. Pussies. (I guess now I'll have to get started on that clone army.) ;-)

I like using bad words now because the Odiogo podcast voice is so serious and proper. It makes me laugh.

I wasn't joking about my blood pressure being very high. It really was, and the other day I thought I might be about to die so I went to the doctor. The medicine he gave me has dropped it back to its normal level, but the huge change has caused some weird things too. It's a bit of a physical mystery because all my other tests and things are fine and normal so far. Of course, like most Americans I need to lose some weight, but it is actually lower than a year ago so it doesn't seem like the culprit. Can I please go through 6 months without some big illness or other trouble? That's not too much to ask, is it?

I worry that my husband is going to trade me in for a younger, healthier model. He seems to be annoyed and inconvenienced by all my problems. Well, I can't say I blame him. I'm pretty annoyed too. Sorry, all these things just happen. It's not like I have any control over people dying and all these other things. It's exhausting for all of us. But the last thing I need right now is to feel resented and defective...

Okay, is that pitiful enough? ;-)

My Business Plan For GM

2008-12-10T16:50:00.003-05:00

Despite my evil ranting sometimes, I really can be pretty generous with nice things too. ;-)

Here's my free advice to GM, if only they would listen.

1. Do away with Buick. Seriously. Anything that sounds like vomiting is a bad idea. If the old people want "luxury" let them buy a Cadillac.

2. Do away with GMC. All of those cars are just the same as Chevys with different skin. Wasteful repetition.

3. Do away with Hummer. They were just a fad, a passing fancy, mostly for guys who were trying to compensate for lacking something.

4. Do away with Saab. Boring. Nothing special.

5. Do away with Pontiac. This is a little painful for me since I grew up in Pontiacs, and I still have my first car, a 1978 Firebird. But Pontiac has pretty much become more redundancy and nothing very exciting.

6. Keep Cadillac. There will always be some market for luxury, even in a bad economy. Hey, I'd buy an Escalade if I wanted to take on making car payments again, but my car is paid for and that's too good to change right now.

7. Keep Corvette. This is a no-brainer, but they really need to improve their marketing for it. These are consistently highly rated and good performers. But they are also pretty good with fuel mileage. GM should emphasize this fact. Advertise that getting good mileage will never look or feel better, or something like that. Mine can get 30 mpg on long trips and between 22-24 in the 'city', depending on how I drive. ;-)

8. Keep Saturn. Give it a chance. I'm not too familiar with them except the Sky, which is stunningly cute. The other Saturns I've seen on the road don't look so bad.

9. And of course, keep Chevrolet, at least most of them. Maybe eliminate the duds that just haven't moved. And keep the planned 2010 Camaro reintroduction. There is a nostalgia market for that.

Eliminating so many lines will of course result in lots of lay-offs, but that's just the way it will have to be. There is no market for so many cars and it just can't be sustainable for all those people to keep getting paid to make what isn't wanted or needed. As I suggested previously, if the UAW thinks it is so indispensable then let them buy out some of the lines that GM needs to shed.

Obviously, I don't like these bailouts in the guise of "loans" to companies that haven't operated profitably for a long time because of their own bad decisions and poor planning. I do feel a little sorry for the actual factory workers who will lose their jobs, but then again, how bad can you feel for people who have pretty much been babied and coddled in a world that isn't realistic? I've toured the Corvette assembly plant, and some of those people are paid $30+ an hour plus excessive benefits for steering a machine that tightens some nuts and bolts and that's about it.

Maybe the workers should file some class action lawsuits against their stupid bosses? That would be better than demanding money from the government.

Times are tough for all of us. But it can get better if everyone gets their heads out of their asses and accepts that they will have to adapt and adjust instead of expecting everything to always stay the same.

Declaration of Independence Today

2008-12-08T18:09:00.003-05:00

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,

it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

I'm just about insane enough now to actually do something about the abject condition of our current government. I shouldn't admit this publicly, but I'm not a coward and I am ready abolish this system which has ignored the governed and disregarded our consent and protests and has reduced us to absolute despotism. We have suffered enough and it is our right and duty to throw off this government.

Ours are not "light and transient causes" and if one needs to list "a long train of abuses and usurpations" all it takes is to read the headlines of the last few months.

I'm serious. And I'm asking for help from anyone who is brave enough to stand up for our rights.

And if they come to arrest me for conspiracy and sedition, well, that's fine too because my blood pressure is about 180/110 these days and it would be okay to get some "free" medical treatment. My own personal bailout, if you will. ;-) But that is highly unlikely anyway since the likes of William Ayers can become a media star from being an actual unrepentant terrorist. I'm only talking about it.

Wake Me Up When December Ends

2008-12-07T16:59:00.005-05:00

Sorry that I seem to have lost my sense of humor lately. It's been such a tough year and everything is worn out from it. While the holiday season is supposed to be joyful and fun, the pressure to be joyful and fun can kill what little joy and fun that tries to emerge. This morning I woke up with a horrible, splitting headache as well as an irritable bladder, which means pain though usually not from a UTI. Often it is stress induced.

One good thing today was that the Titans won again, beating the Cleveland Browns.

It has been unusually cold here for a while, and today the temperature never got above freezing at our house. Manmade global warming/climate change my ass. We have roughly 30 year cycles of warming and cooling.

It sounds like they are going to give the auto companies billions more dollars. Well, I was thinking yesterday about all these economic "theories" that the "experts" are trying to make work in reality. Sorry, but it just doesn't look like any of them are working so well. Why is it that some people are so attached to theory and their own expectations and demands of how reality should work? Theories are fine and great sometimes, but too many people can't accept when reality does not agree with their own ideas. This is true in economics and "climate science." Neither one is really accurately predicting and describing reality. Enough with it already. And stop trying to make reality fit the theory. Change the fucking theories instead. Again, this year's Economics Nobelist comes to mind. He apparently won for his ideas about the US auto industry. Isn't it ironic that this very industry is collapsing this year too? Well, it just doesn't look so good for the Nobel people when they give awards to stupid people whose theories are failing in real time.

We were watching some shows on the science channel last night and one did make me laugh. They don't have the video up on their website yet. Too bad. Anyway, this guy has made a roach driven robot, yes, seriously it is driven by a roach bug. Actually, it is pretty cool, but somehow it just cracks me up that someone's life has been devoted to such a project. Imagine how it would sound to a girl who meets him and asks what kind of work he does. Or imagine how a girl might tell her friends what her boyfriend/husband's work is. It would be a funny thing on The Big Bang Theory, I think. There are many women in the world who would never be able to appreciate a man whose life work is building bug-driven robots. Likewise, there are also many women in the world who could never appriate a man who lives only in the theoretical. I'm not placing judgment on these things, just noting that they usually aren't as important to the functioning world as the guys who are doing them think they are (or should be). It's just a fact of life that most people don't care about theories so much. They only care about what actually works. And the cold, harsh truth is that real life and reality are much, much more difficult, challenging, and unstable that some "elegant" and comfortable theory in someone's head.

I didn't really mean to go off on that tangent, but whatever. I'm just trying to make it through the day and the rest of this month and year. If I could go to bed and sleep through it I would.

Truth In Advertising

2008-12-05T14:12:00.001-05:00

Healthcare: The Next Bursting Bubble

2008-12-04T12:32:00.006-05:00

I am certain that the US economy is already in the beginning of a depression and not just a recession. Not that I'm saying we will see the same horrible life as in the Great Depression, but relatively speaking what is going on now is quite serious and is not going to improve for quite some time. As all the "experts" are saying, it will likely get worse before it gets better. That is about the only thing they're saying that I do agree with. (forgive my laziness about ending sentences with "with")

The intelligence of our "leaders" seems to have declined considerably in the last few decades. Maybe it is because of the birth control pill? Messing with Nature usually doesn't end well, but maybe no one ever reads Frankenstein anymore? Anyway, the whole lot of them* are total idiots, regardless of whatever degrees and so-called education they've had. Well, look at it this way. How intelligent is it to continue doing the things that consistently fail? That's exactly what they do.

Incidentally, and this is just my own insecurity and need for validation, whether it comes extrinsically or intrinsically, I have evidence that I really am smarter than about 95% of my peers. It's not an "IQ" score, but there are some other standardized test results that consistently place me in about the 95th percentile. If you don't believe me I can scan and post them, godddammit. So all the dumbfucks who try to call me stupid are only being dumbfucks. Okay? Thank you. I just had to get that out of my system. *sigh* :-)

Now back to the economy. And healthcare specifically. While everyone is hand-wringing over the mortgage meltdown that is the result of lots of people being really stupid and making really bad decisions, there is another bubble that will burst soon enough. Too many people are expecting the government to pay for their healthcare. But what they don't realize is that it is completely unrealistic and will be disastrous when/if that happens. Some people seem to think that free healthcare is a basic human right, but you know, nothing is really free, although recently it looks like 95% of the people have forgotten that, if they ever knew it in the first place.

Sure, access to healthcare is a "right" but how can anyone really think that any vital service can be free of cost? Someone has to pay for it, and until recently it wasn't common practice for the government to just make up billions of dollars to pay for every little thing that people asked for.

There are some ways to make the healthcare system more "fair" and accessible to everyone, but they require some big, serious changes to the way that business has been done for the last few decades. Just like the auto industry. Nothing will improve until they drastically adjust their way of doing business. Sometimes successful evolution takes really big steps.

Well, let me ask some questions. Who is really making the most money from the healthcare system today without actually doing much? The doctors? Not really, though most do make plenty enough, they do work for it usually. The drug companies? Meh, they make a lot but they also contribute a lot with their research and development, as well as advertising that helps pay for our entertainment. The hospitals? Some make money and some lose money but they are vital to the system. What does that leave? Ah, yeah, the insurance companies. What do they really do anyway? They are just an extra, very costly and very profitable, step in the process of delivering healthcare. They are not really vital. Basically they are middlemen who get paid to negotiate between the medical services and the patients. Why can't the patients deal directly with the medical services themselves? Cut out the fat, the wastefulness, the unnecessary.

Anyone who promotes a "universal healthcare" that trusts those same insurance companies to administer it efficiently is a total idiot, or at least seriously deluded. Although the government isn't exactly good at efficient administration of services it would be preferable to make the medical service providers actual government employees instead of keeping a wasteful third party in the system. Make it more like the military if necessary, where the doctors are enlisted and trained by the government and rise through the ranks according to ability and accomplishment. Yeah, maybe this is a radical idea, but it has got to be better than what all the other dummies are suggesting. I'm just saying let's look at this thing from a new perspective instead of always trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

No, there are no perfect plans or ideas for solving the big, serious issues that our country is facing now. But come on, let's stop it with thinking that throwing money at ill-designed and poorly functioning things is actually going to change anything for the better. It won't. It never has. And it never will. Why is it so hard for people to understand this simple fact? I really don't believe it is so difficult that one has to be in the 95th percentile to get it.

*correction: My own Tennessee Senator Bob Corker was just giving hell to the stupid auto bosses, thank God. I guess he's one in the top 5%. ;-)

I Know My Candybars

2008-12-03T12:22:00.001-05:00

The only one I missed was a Mars bar because it has been many, many years since I've eaten one of those.

Took Seven Minutes

2008-12-03T12:19:00.000-05:00

I named 50 US states in 10 minutes

I'm a little slow.

Stuck in the Middle (Age)

2008-12-02T15:22:00.004-05:00

I guess it's to be expected to see a bunch of old people shopping at JCPenny's on a Tuesday mid-morning. And maybe that's why I was there too. ;-) Well, I figured it was safer to go with the old people than later in the day since there have been at least three shootings at the mall in the last year, most in the afternoon or evening. Anyway, old people, bless their hearts I hope I live long enough to be as old, are so slow when they are paying for things. I shouldn't complain. What's my rush? Maybe they are just as lost in this world of expanding technology as I am finding myself.

It's like I'm stuck in the middle between these old people who barely get around and hardly know how to use a debit card and the younger people who are constantly texting friends on their high-tech phones while negotiating all sorts of other gadgets and whatnot that are intimidating to me. While my cell phone can receive text messages, and all I get are spams, my service does not include allowing me to send text messages. I could add that option, but not that it really matters because it seems like texting is mostly for people who need to sneak around about their communications. Okay, not really, but isn't it easier just to call?

One of my reasons for shopping was looking for a cute phone for my daughter to put in her room so she could answer her own calls. Not a cell phone, but a nice old-fashioned land-line phone. There were none to be found. Anywhere. Not cute ones anyway. Man, I'm getting old and behind the times. See, where we live cell phone service is still kind of iffy sometimes, so I don't think it's a good idea to eliminate the land-line like many urban/suburban people are doing. Besides, in some circumstances a land-line is more reliable and possibly more secure (though I don't really know about that for sure.) I ended up buying a plain phone and will just "bling" it up with some rhinestone stickers.

Then I went to Hot Topic because my kids are at the age of liking that kind of stuff. The music was too loud and there was way too much stuff. Sensory overload for a middle-aged momma, so I had to ask the nice young guy working there to help me find things. Pathetic.

Just in the last couple of weeks I've been fretting over getting older and all the things that go with it. It sucks! I'll never be the cute little 20 year old or even 30 year old I used to be. And what really sucks is that I didn't even really know I was cute then and therefore didn't actually enjoy it as much as I now know I should have. Yeah, it's a mid-life crisis thing. We get to an age when we regret our stupidity and wasted youth. If only we knew then what we know now. These cliches are hard and real. I can't even look at myself in the mirror sometimes. Who is that fat old lady I see?

I have to admit that I offered God a deal after my mom died nearly 12 years ago. I told him that I would accept whatever aging brought me as long as I got to live much longer than she did. And then after my dad died earlier this year I realized that I've certainly been paying on my deal already and wondered how much more I owed. Mom died shortly after her 54th birthday. Daddy died a few months before his 71st birthday. Both died about 10 years after their appendices blew. Averaging their ages at death is 62.5. Adding ten years to my approximate age when my appendix blew is 50. Those numbers probably don't mean anything, but when you're feeling old already they don't look so good.

Sorry if this is a downer. Maybe next time I go shopping I'll be adventurous and go at night. ;-)

Snow Today

2008-12-01T14:34:00.004-05:00

This heavy snow shower is already gone now, but we will probably have more later. It's so pretty and watching it snow always makes me hum "Winter Wonderland."

Medicare Bailout

2008-11-29T10:33:00.003-05:00

Watch this video and look carefully at the featured woman, "Carolyn," who complains about Medicare putting some limits on how much they pay for her medical treatments for an "immune system deficiency."

Perhaps it is only my astute eye that can see that she has had her face injected with lots of Botox. If you will notice, there is no movement in her forehead, upper lip, or around her eyes. If you've been living under a rock for many years and don't know what Botox is, you should look it up. While it does have some valid medical applications, it is mostly used to prop up the vanity of aging people who cannot accept that their skin naturally develops wrinkles from repetitive movements of the underlying muscles.

Sure, this is a free country and people have the "right" to subject themselves to any sort of poisonous treatments for whatever they think ails them. But I should not have to help them pay for it. If they want their faces paralyzed to smooth their wrinkles then they should pay for it themselves. But they should pay for more serious and essential needs first.

Sorry, but I have no sympathy for this Carolyn who complains about not being able to pay for "life saving" treatments for some undefined "immune disorder" while she has obviously had the money to pay for lots of cosmetic Botox treatments (as well as hair colors and who knows what other vanity expenses). And I suspect that this "immune system deficiency" is probably related to having one of the most deadly poisons in the world injected into her face (and maybe also related to having silicone balloons implanted in her chest). Duh! It looks like obvious common sense that the immune system would respond, sometimes violently, to the introduction of toxic foreign substances. I mean, really, how dumb can people, doctors included, be??

I hate being expected to always bail out all of these stupid, selfish idiots who should be allowed to suffer the consequences of their bad choices. It's not just this super-vain, selfish Carolyn, but also all the big banks and auto makers and other irresponsible slugs who are useless parasites on the working parts of society.

As for Medicare and if old people are happy with it, it would be better and more fair to ask some of those really pitiful people who are stuck in hospital beds or depending on walkers to get around. I bet they aren't complaining about Medicare. And I bet they didn't waste all their money on Botox and other cosmetic treatments.

When I first saw this story on Brit Hume's show I was shocked and disappointed that the producers would be so dumb as to pick that Carolyn as an example of Medicare "unfairness." Jesus, who approved it? He or she should be fired or at least strongly reprimanded. And if it was Hume himself, man, I would have expected much better.

My own personal experience with the Medicare system has been fine. When my dad was sick and in and out of the hospital and having all kinds of tests and treatments his Medicare and Medicare supplemental insurance covered practically everything. Most older people do buy Medicare supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare doesn't. I have no reason to believe that my dad's situation was any different from most. There were no Medicare refusals or disputes of coverage for his many tests, treatments, and hospitalizations. Maybe that was because his illness was real and not some dubious, narcissistic "immune" problem.

Well, maybe I sound harsh and mean. Too bad. As far as "Carolyn" is concerned I think the only "immoral" thing going on is that she is expecting everyone else to a pay for her own idiocy.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T09:15:00.003-05:00

Sorry to say, but this year Thanksgiving isn't really so happy. Although I've tried very hard to focus on all the good things and blessings in our lives, all the losses and struggles of the last year are so much in the foreground that there is no ignoring or avoiding them. This is my first Thanksgiving with no living parent. No more going to Dad's house for the family gathering. It is a big change.

I am thankful for not being so poor (yet) that we have to kill and eat squirrels to survive. I am thankful that my children are healthy and normal. I am thankful that we have made smart choices that have insulated us to some degree from the "financial crisis" that seems to be fueled by never-ending stupidity. (Hey, why can't someone create a new "biofuel" from that never-ending supply of stupidity?)

I am thankful that my own health is much better than one year ago, despite having to deal with so much drama and stress.

Well, there is a lot of cooking and preparing to do today. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the India terrorist attacks. And my hopes and wishes are for all of us to take a moment to be thankful, even if not exactly happy, for our lives, families, friends, and other goodness in our lives.

First Grade Report Card

2008-11-24T14:01:00.004-05:00

(click to enlarge)

I like the little stick figure drawings that show the "deportment" progress. It's funny that I did not do so well at working quietly and finishing my work because those are the exact same problems that my sons have had in their beginning grades. My daughter has not had those same problems. And the reading grades are the lowest, probably because I had some unidentified "learning disability" or other condition that is nowadays labeled and widely accepted as a reason for slower reading progress.

It's funny that the height and weight are included. Such things are now considered politically incorrect and damaging to children's self esteem. ;-)

Also on the front and back are some interesting notes about development and the purpose of school.

"A child should be encouraged to face reality."

"A sense of humor is necessary for a good personality."

"We believe that schools should prepare a child to live in a democracy."

I certainly don't see these things spelled out on my kids' modern report cards, and it is unfortunate that such practical and common sense has been abandoned by the educators, who are too worried about hurting self-esteem and other sociopolitical correctnesses, to really understand about healthy development and to instruct children how to grow into good citizens.

Typealyzer Blog Personality

2008-11-24T10:17:00.004-05:00

via Backreaction

Typealyzer says it can guess the personality of a text, or communication style, but does note that "writing style on a blog may have little or nothing to do with a person´s self-percieved personality." According to their calculations I'm a Hoe (as well as all of my other blogs - public and private) is this:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like [to] seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Analysis

This show what parts of the brain that were dominant during writing.

Add to that the gender analysis of this blog from GenderAnalyzer that says:

We think http://viciousmomma.blogspot.com is written by a man (87%).

And it appears that by some kind of "statistical analyses" I should be a male, but I am most definitely a woman, at least my body that produced three children is female. :-)

I suppose that despite being a "vicious momma" my being a "hoe" which is a type of tool does fit the mechanic theme. And since most mechanics are males that use tools then these results make some kind of sense.

Being labeled as a Mechanic might also be related to my fixing things. And the description about liking adventure and fast cars fits well too. Though I've never had any desire to be a cop or fireman I do sometimes fantasize about being a super-hero vigilante. ;-) That goes along with the problem solving combined with the liking action and adventure, don't you think?

But in other personality tests I've been INFJ or "Counselor" type. Maybe in my writing I am much more analytical while in my in-person relations I am much more empathetic and "fuzzy". ;-) However, I can see some congruity of these different personality results. Probably the same active problem-solving tendency occurs whether I'm dealing with things or people.

Titans Lose One

2008-11-24T09:21:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, the TN Titans were defeated by Brett Favre and the NY Jets with a score of 34-13. Well, as many people were saying for the last few weeks, it was inevitable and probably necessary. Of course, we can't will them all, and sometimes we have to lose in order to regain our competitive spirit. I hope that the Titans will take this loss as a motivation to come back stronger for the last games of the season.

Titans Still Undefeated

2008-11-17T11:02:00.003-05:00

Despite all the nay-sayers and others who are so reluctant to give respect and credit where it is due, the Tennessee Titans remain undefeated with 10 consecutive wins this season. They are the only currently undefeated team in the NFL. At the beginning of the season when Kerry Collins replaced the injured starting quarterback Vince Young, I heard some announcers describing Collins as "an old throw-back from the 90s." Ha! I guess he's showing them!

On the flip-side, the Detroit team, much like their city's auto industry, has a perfect losing record for the season: 0 wins, 10 losses. ;-)

Slave Masters

2008-11-13T16:22:00.001-05:00

One of the answers to the question ending the previous post - a question that no one could answer (whether they read it or not) ;-) - is of course, the labor unions, specifically UAW.

I urge anyone who wants to be truly informed about how the unions actually work, please do look at the UAW website, specifically their "auto contracts". One can see just by the "wages" of GM auto workers that the total pay and benefits for each employee is far above the national average, even though they "work" for a company that cannot really afford to pay them so much.

But the union does not seem to care that they are "bargaining" their employer to death. They don't seem to mind that they have expensed GM into bankruptcy. The union believes that GM exists solely for their own benefit. They don't understand that GM's existence and purpose is actually to produce and sell automobiles - not to employ a bunch of greedy, lazy people.

Well, I've decided that the absolute best solution for GM and UAW is to allow GM to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy and then let the UAW buy it out. If they want to keep their jobs then let them buy the company and see how well they can ru(i)n it themselves. :-)

But most definitely they should not expect any government bailouts if they continue to run GM into the ground. If they think that the GM bosses have done so badly and wrongly at operating the company, then they should be happy to take over and prove that they can do it better. Hey, if the "evil capitalists" are doing it all wrong, then maybe the "communist/unionist workers" can fix it all for themselves? But without government money! (But if there is a auto bailout at some point, I want share in the company in exchange for my tax dollars. Or at least new car. ;-) What's fair is fair.)

With my brilliant ;-) solution, GM doesn't disappear, making the country's economy collapse in its wake as all the doomsayers are predicting. GM would go on, and all those people would keep their jobs. Being the ones under pressure to assure that the company does not fail should be a strong incentive for the union workers/company owners to do it right for their own benefit.

Well, honestly, I do think I'm giving people too much benefit and credit for being responsible for themselves. But it's a good, even if overly idealistic, solution to the problem of GM's continued existence. But just like all my other great ideas, no one is really listening. ;-)

Refried Stimulus

2008-11-12T13:16:00.004-05:00

You know, it's just getting so ridiculous now that it's hard to see straight anymore. I tried to watch Paulson's news conference today, but man, he is a terrible communicator. And honestly, I don't think he's really any better at economics. Today he confirmed what I already knew - that the TARP is a total ruse and hoax. Sorry, Henry, but the "facts" haven't changed. Only the lies you all have told us have changed.

I understand that everyone who's "important" thinks that the US auto industry is vital and indispensable so that we cannot allow it to crumble. Fine. But isn't there a better way of helping it than to give even more money to a bunch of guys who have proven that they don't know how to manage it? I mean, good Lord, that's like telling a child with a mouth full of rotten teeth to just keep on eating all that candy they want. It just makes a vicious momma feel, well, really super-vicious. ;-)

I really wish that Obama or someone would hire me as an advisor and I could really straighten their asses out about some things. Or at least, I could dispense some long-overdue spankings to all those executives that haven't been properly disciplined. Yeah, appoint me to the Cabinet. Create a new position called Spanking Czar or Tsar or whatever it is. Or Secretary of Discipline. Oh, nevermind, that won't ever happen.

Anyway, we got our letter yesterday about the "Economic Stimulus" - it came this late because we had filed for an extension and just filed our income tax return in October. Well, I figure it's like a small refund of some of the thousands of dollars we've already paid in the last few years. I guess we'll use it for Christmas and do our part to "stimulate" the economy. Maybe everything will be real cheap since all the retailers are in trouble. We'll see.

Perhaps this taking advantage of desperately low prices sounds somewhat predatory or scavenger-like. Well, just look at nature and you'll find that it's a common adaptation to pick out the weakest to consume and to scavenge those that have fallen. I guess I'm a cruel socioeconomic darwinist to look at things this way. Fine. Whatever. But it seems to me that all those guys like Paulson and the other "experts" and "executives" have completely forgotten the laws of nature and the fact that oftentimes it's best to let the weak and non-adaptive things be consumed and/or scavenged by the stronger and healthier.

Okay, what about compassion and humanity? Have I none? Of course I do. And I frankly do think that it is more compassionate and responsible to assure the future well-being of our society by allowing the failures to fail. How will we ever learn to improve if we don't ever let ourselves fail? It's just not natural to prevent failure and death of things that are incapable of living. To quote Mammy from Gone With the Wind, "It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'!" Believe it or not, Mammy has always been a kind of vicious momma role model for me:

I couldn't find a video of the "it ain't fittin'" scene, but the one above shows some of the aftermath of the Civil War. The streets of Atlanta were full of predators and scavengers (some called "carpetbaggers") who rightly (and sometimes wrongly) rebuilt the city from its ruins - all without big government bailouts for the formerly rich slave-owners or any kind of "economic parity" programs for the poor whites who didn't even own slaves but still had to suffer through the War and its consequences. Of course, all of that ingenuity and resourcefulness truly is gone with the wind, and now all we are offered is some refried stimulus borrowed from our grandchildren.

You know, the pre-Civil War cotton industry was considered vital and indispensable too, just like the auto industry today. Well, history has a way of repeating itself, especially when the same mistakes are made over again. Who do you think really is holding us as slaves to their ways today? (one hint to one answer: their names are akin to the ones who won the Civil War)

The People Spoke

2008-11-06T09:43:00.003-05:00

And that is the American Way. Congratulations and good luck to Obama and his team. They certainly do have a big job ahead of them. I do realize the historical significance of these days and I appreciate being witness to them. Despite whatever angry things I've said during the campaign I am reserving judgment about an Obama Presidency until we see what exactly he does. He does have some pretty powerful mojo.

Incidentally, I think that Michelle Obama should hire Korto, the runner-up in Project Runway 5, to design her Inauguration gown. I always liked Korto's designs and thought that she should have won. I was impressed with her creativity and skilled construction.

Teenage Wasteland

2008-11-04T08:48:00.004-05:00

"Baba O'Riley" by The Who

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Sally, take my hand
We'll travel south cross-land
Put out the fire
And don't look past my shoulder
The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let's get together
Before we get much older

Teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland

They're all wasted!

Of course, this song was written by a Brit, but music is universal and everyone is allowed, at least still at this moment, to interpret music and art as it makes sense to them. While some might read these lyrics as some kind of communist manifesto, I prefer to read them as a declaration of Freedom from the oppression of communistic "groupthink" and loss of individuality. After all, it is usually younger and more immature people who have never actually put their backs into their work to build a life and security of their own. They generally prefer that everything is given to them without having to actually earn it and be responsible for themselves. (If you know any teenagers you know what I mean.)

Well, America is in its Teenage Wasteland. They're all wasted! The People are wasting all the hard work and sacrifice of the Founding Fathers and others who have fought so hard for our unique Independence and Freedom and the Responsibilities that go with them. It breaks my heart and hurts my soul and stomach to witness the "Change" led by someone who believes and preaches that his people are "owed" something and that the very foundations of our Nation are "flawed."

May God or the Laws of Nature intervene to save us from our own destruction.

I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Bonus:

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T11:01:00.003-04:00

No Sympathy From Me

2008-10-30T09:31:00.003-04:00

In a stunning display of wrongly placed tribute and sympathy, the Huffington Post pays memorial to one of their writers, the suicide murderer, Carol Anne Burger.

Burger apparently stabbed her ex-lover 222 times with a Phillips-head screwdriver, stuffed the body in a car trunk, abandoned the car, and then shot herself before police could question her. Yeah, such a great person really deserves a sympathetic tribute. If it had been a conservative writer you know that the media would be all over it with their twisted acrimony and spiteful conviction of "conservative values."

The Golden Fiddle

2008-10-27T13:29:00.003-04:00

(this has nothing to do with the website of the same name)

Welcome to the readers of goldenfiddle.tumblr.com! Please allow me to explain that this posting is somewhat snarky and tongue-in-cheek.

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" originally by Charlie Daniels Band:

Of course, Johnny earned his golden fiddle by accepting the Devil's challenge and out-fiddling the Devil, but what the story doesn't say is that anything you get from the Devil, whether you've earned it or not, isn't really free and isn't really yours to keep forever. You can't take it with you when you die.

A lot of people in the last couple of decades have "earned" their golden fiddles, too. But now that they are trying to cash them in they are learning that they are truly worthless. They built entire empires upon the wealth (and talent, or luck, or whatever) they thought their golden fiddles represented. However, not even modern high-tech people can really outwit or win any bet with the Devil, despite all of their humanistic, postmodern, intellectual, and other philosophical hubris. Mankind has not really evolved so much in the last few thousands of years.

2 Timothy 3

Godlessness in the Last Days

1 Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. 2 People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; 3 they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; 4 they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God; 5 they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people. 6 Some of them go into people's houses and gain control over weak women who are burdened by the guilt of their sins and driven by all kinds of desires, 7 women who are always trying to learn but who can never come to know the truth. 8 As Jannes and Jambres were opposed to Moses, so also these people are opposed to the truth—people whose minds do not function and who are failures in the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, because everyone will see how stupid they are. That is just what happened to Jannes and Jambres.

Sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Well, we can't really expect those who reject religion and faith and proclaim that it is evil and irrational to actually read the scriptures and learn that it is full of such sociological and historical wisdom. That particular passage from the Bible pretty accurately describes all the behaviors that have caused the fall of every great empire. It's kind of funny that so many so-called intellectuals have ignored such a valuable resource and have remained ignorant of these causes-and-effects that recur every so often. They are not so smart, and their minds don't function all that great after all. In their delusions of grandeur they have fallen into the exact same traps as so many before them.

And the Devil always gets the last laugh. And he always gets his golden fiddles back somehow. But this time the Devil is coming to all of America to reclaim all those golden fiddles so he can redistribute them. Unfortunately, he is also taking much more than some ill-gotten golden fiddles. He wants to take all the other fiddles too, including those humble homemade heirlooms that were never touched by the Devil at all.

Nesting

2008-10-24T15:03:00.002-04:00

Over the last week I've been taking a 'mental health media holiday' because all the doom and gloom on TV was really ruining my mood and well-being. Instead of the news I've watched only fun and frivolous shows like Project Runway 5 and some of the other shows on Bravo. And most of my time and energy has been spent on home-making, or nesting. There have been many little projects and seasonal cleaning tasks that have gotten finished, as well as some rearranging and redecorating. Sometimes it's just time to do those things and to concentrate on refreshing the living spaces.

I can't do anything to make the rest of the world better, but I can make my own little world better. The stock market is going to be very volatile for a while, so there's no point in watching its every swing. There will be a pretty serious global recession whether or not the government becomes fully socialist and no matter who is elected President. These are things that I have no control over even though my family always tells me that I should run for President to straighten out everyone and everything. ;-) I just tell them that I'd rather be Queen of the World for a week. :-)

I've done my fair share of analyzing and thinking about all the world's problems and I've written them here and there. That's about all I can do and if no one pays attention then that's just how it goes. I can't fret about it too much any more. We are prepared for the worst but are hoping for better. That's the only thing we can do now.

This nesting thing is a very old biological instinct and somehow I find it comforting to follow that basic drive and to fulfill that purpose of my life. After all my chosen career is being a home-maker. Oh, and tomorrow is our big Halloween party so getting things ready for that has been a motive too.

Here I Go Again

2008-10-14T14:47:00.002-04:00

... spouting off about things I probably don't understand...

The law of diminishing returns and fractional-reserve banking

I've been trying to figure out how exactly our world has come to this global financial crisis. A lot of people are blaming Capitalism. A lot of people are blaming Greed. A lot of people are blaming Bush. And a lot of other people are blaming a lot of other things. I've done a bit of blaming too. ;-)

While it's pretty clear that greed, corruption, and irresponsibility are very big parts of this problem, I have to wonder why it was so easy for those things to take control. A lot of people blame "deregulation" and the "free market." Well, I guess you can try to regulate away some of the bad motives and poor choices of people, but after all these thousands of years of civilization it's apparent that man-made regulations and rules don't always work.

And in a truly free market the bad things would fail anyway because the benefits of the cheating, etc., always follow the law of diminishing returns, and also because people would eventually figure out who are the corrupt people and would not give them their business. Of course, we have to have some way of keeping all the bad guys from getting together and creating mafias and such, but in reality it probably could be argued that even mafias are better managed than many government entities. ;-)

Anyway, it is wrong to say that greed and corruption are inherent qualities of Capitalism. I think looking at history will show us that greed and corruption occur in all kinds of systems, probably in close-to-equal proportions. Greed is not the same thing as desiring a fair profit from hard work. On the other hand, greed could be defined as not wanting someone else to have a fair profit from his hard work, as is a motivation of communistic systems because all people expect the same profit regardless of how hard they work themselves. Greed and jealousy are often the motives for desiring everyone to have "economic parity" because some people just can't accept that others will have more than they.

Well, all of that isn't really the point I want to make. I want to discover the source of all the bad decisions that led to the collapse of the global banking system. What it all boils down to is that all of these banks were lending more money than they actually had. The official name of that is "fractional-reserve banking." (Please click the link above so I don't have to spend time explaining it.) As a principle this "fractional-reserve" is not really a bad thing. It has many benefits. However, as with any other principle it has to be properly applied.

Let me go off on a tangent here about the law of diminishing returns. This is a perfectly natural law that is consistent with the reality and the Laws of Nature that shape reality. All systems have some entropy. Economies are not so special that they can break this law. Some "intellectual" economists apparently think it's okay and fine to drop the assumption of diminishing returns, and one of them has even been awarded a Nobel Prize.

I guess I'm not "intellectual" enough to see how that is worthy of any prizes. It seems pretty dumb to me because it looks about the same as some physicists deciding to drop the second law of thermodynamics in order to make their calculations add up. Incidentally, there actually are some physicists who try to do this and even try to say that we can reverse the arrow of time. Will this be the next big idea in Economics?*

Okay, back to the fractional-reserve. Somehow someone decided that it was a good idea for banks to lend out 10 times as much as their capital. I suspect that they are using similar methods and calculations as the previously mentioned Nobelist, and honestly, I just don't think it takes a genius to see that extending an order of magnitude of credit will result is some serious, exponential problems down the line. It would be much more realistic and less problematic to select a much lower amount than "times 10."

I mean, Lord have mercy, what kind of retarded idiot is going to believe that the Universe is going to magically unfold so that he suffers no losses from being completely unrealistic? Who was the dumbass who said that it was a good idea for banks to lend so much more than they have? I really want to know. He needs to be spanked very hard and possibly even imprisoned for being so stupid and causing this global meltdown. It does not take a genius to figure out that if you lend $10 for every $1 you actually possess it won't take long for it all to catch up with you, even if you're charging interest. (Unless you are in a mafia which breaks the legs of people who don't pay back their loans.) ;-)

Again, I want to say that the problem is not with banks and capitalism, per se. It is with the bad ideas and bad policies and bad practices that they've operated under. Somebody decided that these things would make the economies grow and make everyone rich and happy, or at least themselves rich and happy. But you know what? It was all an illusion and alchemy based on some dummies deciding that they have the power to overcome the very Laws of Nature.

Surely it must be apparent enough to everyone in the world who is witnessing our global banking failures to see and agree that ignoring the law of diminishing returns is just begging for disaster. Come on. It just doesn't take a genius to see how that works out.

*Okay, so here's my Nobel-worthy Economics idea. ;-) Let's just say "hocus-pocus" and turn back the arrow of time and erase all debt. Then we can just start all over again. But next time let's not drop the assumption of diminishing returns and let's not lend (or borrow) 10 times more than what we can afford. :-)

The Gadsden Flag

2008-10-12T11:55:00.003-04:00

A potent symbol of American Freedom and Liberty:

Hot, Close, and Real

2008-10-09T16:31:00.002-04:00

Mood swings, market swings.

Okay, here are my simple solutions.

1. The US automakers really should switch from making so many cars to making parts for new power plants. If we really want to get serious about "energy independence" then we can't really afford to pussy-foot around about it. Do it now. Like right now, not next month or next year. Duh!

2. Forget about "redistributing wealth". There isn't any wealth left to redistribute. Essentially, all the wealth was illusion anyway that has vanished now.

3. Stop lowering the interest rates. How many times do they have to fail to figure out that something isn't working? All those times that Greenspan lowered the rates over the last few years only increased the problems instead of helping anything. You know, in 1990 when I bought my first car the interest rate was 12.9%. As it should have been for someone just getting out of school and just beginning a new job and not having earned better rates with an established credit history. And guess what? I survived. Higher interest rates are a "natural" control over too much credit being extended.

4. Stop pushing people to keep borrowing. Didn't anyone ever listen to their grandparents' advice? Sure, credit is necessary for big purchases like cars and homes, but come on people, stop freaking living on credit! Make do. It's possible and it's necessary.

more to come...

Crazy Train

2008-10-09T15:37:00.004-04:00

All aboard!
HA HA HA HA HA HA!
I I I I I I I I
Crazy, but that's how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe, it's not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Life's a bitter shame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I've listened to preachers
I've listened to fools
I've watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The media sells it and you live the role

Mental wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I know that things are going wrong for me
You gotta listen to my words
Yeah yeah yeah

Heirs of the Cold War, that's what we've become
Inherited troubles, I'm mentally numb!
Crazy, I just cannot bear
I'm living with something that just isn't fair!

Mental wounds not healing
Who and what’s to blame
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

All these 28 years since it was released this song still says so much.

Well, if it hasn't been apparent enough over the last several days, those of us who tend towards some mental fragility are being stressed to points of breaking due to the financial meltdown. Okay, so maybe the mental health pork added to the big bailout will actually be helpful. ;-)

I just don't get it. What is wrong with all these people who are panicking and creating an even worse mess than it has to be?

I'm worried too. But I'm not as worried about the stock market as I am about the movement towards so much government power over the economy. Now we hear that the US Treasury is wanting to buy shares in some big banks, but they are calling it "capital injection". Well, I might like an injection too. :-) But I don't see it happening any time soon, if ever.

And what really concerns me is that our next President will inherit this increased power. At this point neither candidate looks capable of handling it properly. McCain lost me during the last debate when he pandered to the "buy our troubled mortgages at taxpayer expense" crowd. Well, it looks like he's already lost the election anyway, but if we could put Sarah Palin in the top spot instead it would be an improvement. She might not be an "intellectual" but honestly how well are all the intellectuals handling these things? I don't see any Nobel Economics winners coming forward with brilliant solutions to anything. And sorry, Neil Cavuto, but the economics "nerds" don't really look too smart right now either. Sure, they might be in demand for commentary, but where are the real goods? ;-)

All Aboard! The Crazy Train is leaving the station.

Too Hot, Too Close, Too Real

2008-10-09T09:52:00.004-04:00

This is the mantra that I use to fight off the thoughts I should not entertain. Not that it always works, but the more I do it the easier it gets. Whether or not it actually solves anything isn't really the point, I guess. But maybe the lesson here is that sometimes it's better to pretend things don't really exist or matter, or at least to tell yourself that those things are too intense and overwhelming to approach, even in your mind. I guess it's kind of like when all the elitist "experts" tell the average people not to talk or offer ideas about things they can't possibly understand enough to have a valid opinion. So, the next time I'm tempted to offer any kind of commentary or solutions to all the big problems in the world, I'll just say "too hot, too close, too real" and leave it at that. ;-)

Is He Shaved?

2008-10-08T17:28:00.003-04:00

(I said "shaved" not "saved") ;-)

A Happy Day-late Birthday to Vladimir Putin:

Well, I have to say he just doesn't look too manly without any chest hair. Does he shave it off? Ick.

Carry Each Other

2008-10-08T17:23:00.001-04:00

It would be pleasing if Bono was included in this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame
You say
One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing,
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
See we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love is a higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't keep holding on
To what you got
When all you've got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...
One...

extended version

Can You hear us coming Lord
Can You hear us call
Feel us knocking
We're knocking at Your door

Haha, Lutheran Guilt

2008-10-08T11:58:00.002-04:00

I grew up Lutheran, and of course, it did influence me quite a bit.

I just want to needlessly apologize for my last post and for any hurt feelings my rant might have caused the weak at heart. (Though, I did warn them to proceed at their own peril.) However, I don't think it is necessary to delete it because then this post wouldn't make any sense. ;-)

I'm sorry for being an imperfect person, please forgive me.

Emotional Bailout

2008-10-08T09:00:00.004-04:00

Warning: Personal Pity Party and Raw, Unedited, and Indelicate Statements. Proceed at your own peril.

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about

"Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie

I need some kind of hundred billion dollar emotional bailout. All the big things that have happened in the last couple of years have completely overwhelmed and overextended my emotional credit. Last night I got really sad missing my dad, but then I thought it was probably better that he wasn't having to see this financial meltdown that would have wiped out all of his retirement funds that had already seen so many declines in the last few years. At least I paid off his house the day before he died.

We won't have the money to pay a large tax bill because of all the outstanding accounts receivable that people just can't pay because they don't have the money either. Well, I'll just put a note on our tax return that we just don't have it and so they'll just have to deal with it and if they have any concern about all the "Joe Sixpacks" then forgive us for not having the money just like they've forgiven all the crooks on Wall Street. Don't take our house either. Jesus Fucking Christ, they want to pay for all those other houses of people who didn't do things right, but then they'll threaten to put a lien or something on ours? That just makes me so sick that I want to do bad things.

By the way, I find that term "Joe Sixpack" extremely offensive and racist. If all the media people can said that with impunity, and all the Sarah Palin haters can call her terrible things and throw around the term "white trash" with impunity, then I can say some things with impunity too. I'm sick of having to look at Obama's nappy head. Why doesn't he just grow an afro or dreadlocks or something? And I'm tired of looking at his blue lips telling lies and avoiding real answers. Okay, so I say these things that might offend someone, but no one seems to mind if I'm offended. Freedom of Speech goes both ways, people.

See, my emotional accounts are bankrupt, and I don't see any kind of bailout coming, so what to do? If people want to beat me up for saying some offensive things about Obama, go ahead and kick me when I'm down. You know, it was less than a year ago that I was laid up in the hospital for 5 days after my appendix blew. We're still paying for that too. Our insurance covered some of it, but all this year we've been paying $320 a month on the remaining balance and have another five months to pay on it. We will probably have to reduce that monthly payment now, and the hospital will not like it. Too bad for them. Just two months after that my dad got sick, and two months after that he died. Now I've got at least another $1000 to pay for my skin cancer treatments. Where is that money going to come from? The stress of all these things is more than I can stand, and all the world seems to care about is how they can beat me up even more for being a white American.

If you find this post ugly and unbearable, well, too fucking bad for you. Welcome to my life, and my struggles, and my desperation. I need a bailout too, an emotional one at least. But let's be completely honest, my skin color, lifestyle, and heritage are being held against me in insidious and blatant ways, and to say the least it is exhausting and bleeding me dry.

I hope everyone else is happy with that because I just don't care anymore.

Under Pressure

2008-10-07T14:42:00.001-04:00

Mm ba ba de
Um bum ba de
Um bu bu bum da de
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that tears a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da - that's o.k.
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher
Pressure on people - people on streets
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
O.k.
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher high high
Pressure on people - people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love
but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why ?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

California Should Rescue Itself

2008-10-06T14:56:00.001-04:00

Most populous state in country, 11th in median income with $54,385, and the largest state economy in the USA, and The Arnold is asking the US Treasury for a $7,000,000,000 loan.

As of 2007, the gross state product (GSP) is about $1.812 trillion, the largest in the United States. California is responsible for 13 percent of the United States gross domestic product (GDP). As of 2006, California's GDP is larger than all but eight countries in the world (all but eleven countries by Purchasing Power Parity). California is facing a $16 billion budget deficit for the 2008-09 budget year.

Hollywood should have more of its $28,500 per plate fundraisers like the last one that raised $11,000,000 for Obama's campaign. Deomcrats have so far donated $87,684,794 to the campaigns. How about all those big shot, ultra-liberal stars put their money where their mouths are and start being more "patriotic" (as their second in command has suggested) by donating more taxes to rescue their own state? Oh, I guess they only believe in socialism when they don't have to pay for it.

All the loudmouth, hateful Hollywood liberals who are bashing Sarah Palin should really put their time, energy, and resources into actually doing some good for their own 'homeland'.

If they'd actually allow some oil drilling off their coast, they could be as rich and well-funded as Palin's Alaska. Do we need much more evidence that Hollywood has completely lost all credibility and influence? Yeah, and TV and film producers got some pork out of that big bailout too. I'm not ever going to pay to watch any of their stupid movies again. And if Matt Damon is such a sissy that Palin scares him, then his nuts would just shrivel up and fall off if he ever met me. ;-)

Dear Treasury Secretary Paulson,

2008-10-06T08:43:00.003-04:00

I am writing from Main Street, so to speak, to let you know that our small business is in need of your assistance. While you've been so exceptionally generous in helping save the ~~asses~~ profits of the big guys, and I guess we will have to see how well that works out, we little guys are suffering too.

Instead of adding to the modest debt we have been working so hard to eliminate (and avoid), I am requesting that you send us a ~~bailout~~ grant of ~~$50,000~~ $100,000 to recover the costs of all our outstanding accounts receivable. This amount comes from all the people who have not paid us for our products and services rendered, and frankly, I'm using the accounting tricks of the big guys to inflate that amount. What's fair is fair.

Without this expected income we are not able to pay our own bills from the suppliers and possibly won't be able to cover our payroll. It is very concerning that we might have to lay off our employee due to this problem, and that will hurt all of us.

As a small sole proprietorship, if we cannot pay our bills then those we owe can actually try to sue us for our home or other real assets. You surely realize these are much more serious consequence for us than any of the consequences for the CEOs of the failing financial services companies that you've already agreed to help. As far as I can tell, none of them will have their personal assets seized to cover their inability to keep their companies solvent, even if it is their own fault. Clearly, that is very unjust, don't you agree?

The amount we are requesting is such a tiny percentage of your previous "rescue" packages, and as such we believe that this very modest allocation will actually be very immediately effective in relieving our local economy.

However, out of our own benevolence and altruism, we are open to some negotiation. It might be acceptable to us to be absolved from all federal taxes for some period of time, measured in years not months. Please do consider this option. Although it is not really the most helpful for us, it is better than nothing.

I expect to hear from you or your representatives regarding our request as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rae Ann
Office Manager/Bookkeeper
[edited for privacy] Heating and Air Conditioning
Knoxville, TN

Viruses of the Soul

2008-10-05T14:57:00.003-04:00

Title comes from a previous post, Broken-Hearted Savior.

Dawkins calls religion "viruses of the mind." The viruses of the soul are hubris, greed, and other purely human traits that separate us from God/Love. The war on religion and God that so many militant atheists are trying to fight is nothing less than an attack on the Freedom of Thought which is the root of our First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech and Religion. It's terribly unfortunate that 'distinguished' scholars can't or won't see that, ignoring it like a (spiritual) mole that is destined to become a malignant melanoma (of the soul).

As we've seen so dramatically in recent days and weeks, all these viruses of the soul have overwhelmed humanity and is seriously threatening its health overall.

Hubris, greed, intolerance, condescension, bigotry, hatred, maliciousness, treachery, and on and on and on. There are too many viruses that have overtaken most of the souls in the world.

I feel sick to my stomach knowing that there are so many evil, rotten people in the world and that they are somehow controlling us all. My heart is broken to see all the providential principles upon which our country was formed being throw in the trash. It breaks my heart to hear supposed allies betraying and belittling those of us who cling to our righteousness. Well, all you hateful and heartless atheists, see where you are taking things now? Are you happy to see all the good things die? Does the world really look like it's that much better without God, or faith in something other than your human hubris? I don't see it.

I don't want to stay in a world so full of pestilent souls. If there is such a thing as the Rapture, I want it now. The humanity is very, very sick and I want away from it.

O'Reilly Got His Groove Back!

2008-10-03T09:00:00.004-04:00

I'm impressed. Bill seems to have regained the power of his testicles. ;-) (Apparently the code from Fox doesn't work here, so I'll look on youtube later. But right now I have to take a child to the dentist.)

http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/index.html?playerId=oreillyhomeplayer&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3129030&referralPlaylistId=bbeb11095dff273e354ffbd0dfa4c070c9e8730b&maven_dartZone=undefined&maven_dartSite=undefined

From Youtube:

Congressional Term Limits

2008-10-02T17:23:00.002-04:00

It just hit me. The best solution and prevention of Congressional corruption and inefficacy is term limits. Let's demand it! Sign a petition if you like.

Dear Foreign Friends and Populist Comrades,

2008-10-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

I do understand all of your concern about the current "crisis" in the US economy and that you are also very deeply concerned about how it will affect you and your own economies. Please don't assume that the American people don't care about you. We do. But we also would appreciate your understanding about our own reluctance to throw hundreds of billions of dollars into something that has not been adequately explained and justified. We Americans are generally pretty cautious and careful about demands for huge amounts of money without some assurance that it's not some exaggerated version of a Nigerian email scam.

I hope now that the Senate has passed its "rescue plan" (new name for "bailout" that's actually just their lipstick on the pig) and is sending it down to the House, all of you people around the world who have been throwing blame and hatred towards the "ordinary" Americans will finally begin to appreciate us and maybe even send us a little love for all the sacrifices we are going to make for the *global* economy's benefit.

I was thinking last night that perhaps, since it looks like the US economy is the cash cow that keeps the global economy fed, then perhaps we should just extend this socialism to everyone who depends on us. You know, if we fall, they all fall, so wouldn't it be fair to ask for all to contribute? If every man, woman, and child in America is going to have to be 2-3 thousand dollars more in debt to prop up the global economy, then why wouldn't it be fair to ask every man, woman, and child in the *world* to contribute about $50 which would cover about half of the original $700 billion. Well, what's fair is fair, right?

We "ordinary" Americans have had the weight of the world put on our shoulders and the strain is really too much. What we need right now, instead of blame and derision, is a little love and appreciation for our philosophical and practical sacrifices to join the populist socialist comrades around the world.

I'm willing to say that it isn't really the club that I wanted to join, and all of us "ordinary" and "populist" Americans have been involuntarily drafted into it. Generally, our true populism is not socialist nor communist in nature, and that is why America has been so different from the rest of the world. But now you might have some reason to celebrate our coerced conversion. Actually, it would be pretty nice to see some footage on the news of people around the world sending us praise and blessings, instead of all the previous scenes over the years of people cheering about our tragedies. Well, it's a nice but unrealistic thought.

So please, the next time you are thinking evil thoughts about all the selfish and stupid American masses, stop and try to remember that we are paying the largest price, philosophically and fiscally, to keep your world functioning. And while you're at it, the most helpful and constructive thing you can do is to write and send a $50 check to the US Treasury. That would be the best expression of appreciation possible, but I would personally be happy with a "thank you" or "bless you" or even "I love you." :-)

Sincerely,

Your Comrade (in name only), Rae Ann

PS Here is a video that I always thought had a socialist/communist look to it (but it's a great, fun song):

We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're, no friends of mine

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind

...

We can dance if we want to
We've got all your life and mine
As long as we abuse it, never going to lose it
Everything will work out right

I say, we can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

I say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything's out of control
We can dance, we can dance
We're doing it from pole to pole

We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody's taking the chance

...

"Emergency" Senate Pork

2008-10-01T18:56:00.002-04:00

I've actually taken some time to read through the Senate version of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008". Every interested person who wants to express an "educated" opinion about it should actually read it.

The basic bill is not very different from the original House bill, but it's still full of porcine garbage. For example:

SEC. 117. CARBON AUDIT OF THE TAX CODE.
(a) STUDY.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.
(b) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Academy of Sciences shall submit to Congress a report containing the results of study authorized under this section.
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $1,500,000 for the period of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

Now seriously, this is supposed to be the 'biggest national crisis' since the Great Depression, and they're wasting time talking about a "carbon audit" of the tax code? But that's not all of it. There's so much more, including funding for race tracks! (look it up!) Well, how about a carbon audit of the race tracks too? ;-)

On the more reasonable side, there are some extensions of some current but about to expire tax credits and other incentives meant to stimulate business. Those are supposed to make the socialism a little more palatable to the conservatives, but I think it still looks like lipstick on a pig that still stinks really bad. ;-)

As for that carbon audit at a cost of $1.5 million, I guess that's supposed to look like pocket change compared to hundreds of billions. Great. So some climate scientists will get more funding to waste time studying something that is completely irrelevant and unimportant.

My prediction is that this bill with pass the Senate tonight, and then it will go back to the House to have even more "emergency" pork added to it, and then back to the Senate again. But honestly, the way that everyone has chastised the "ordinary" Americans for not supporting the bailout is just scapegoating us because it's easy. But the real villains here are those Congress members who are delaying this "urgent" legislation to avert "catastrophe" by squabbling over carbon audits, wooden toy arrows, race tracks, "substance use disorder" benefits, TV and film production tax breaks, and lots of other non-emergency nonsense.

The Credit "Crisis" and Zombies

2008-09-30T19:33:00.000-04:00

I read an article with a somewhat hyperbolic title, Main Street America angry over credit crisis. Here is an example of how the credit market has tightened in response to the over-extension of credit that has led to our current financial troubles:

David Zugheri, co-founder of Envoy Mortgage Ltd, which has 475 employees in 20 states, has also seen a big slowdown. He said 30 percent to 40 percent of prospective buyers who could have qualified for mortgages two or three years ago are being shut out.

"There has been a mad rush back to the basics and if you don't have the necessary documentation you cannot get a loan," Zugheri said. But he noted that not all credit is dead.

"If you have decent credit, a verifiable income and want a loan for under $400,000 it's business as usual."

Well, I think it's pure scare tactics and exaggeration when the President and the media are telling us that we won't be able to get any credit at all. What is happening now is exactly what needs to happen. The banks need use more discretion and tougher requirements for credit than the free-for-all orgy of credit that has been going on for about the last decade. People will have to learn to live within their means and to stop expecting to get credit that they don't really deserve. What ever happened to the wisdom that credit has to be earned?

The article opened with a story of a guy wanting to buy a new truck with a $3000 down payment. The trouble was that he owed more on the old truck than its trade-in value, and he couldn't get approved for a loan without more down payment. That always happens when you buy brand new vehicles. They are already overpriced, and as soon as you drive off the car lot they automatically lose at least 25-30% of their resale value. This is one of the problems with the auto industry. It costs so much to build the cars because the auto unions demand that the employees are paid $30/hr to make the vehicles. But in the real "free market" of used cars the actual value is much lower than the new ones, and so people always end up owing more than they are worth for several years. The lender knew that the guy with the $3000 down payment would still end up driving off the lot owing much more than what the truck was worth. The bank knew that if they had to repossess the truck then they would be stuck with a loss because they couldn't resell it for enough to cover the loan amount. That is the proper decision of a lender. But people have gotten so spoiled with all the too-easy credit that the banks, for whatever reasons, foolishly extended.

Harsh as it might seem today, I have to say that this whole push by Bush, Congress, and so many supposed capitalists for keeping that kind of credit orgy going is absolutely insane. And as Neil Cavuto described it, they've all been turned into some kind of government bailout zombies:

Neil, you're not all alone in feeling like you've entered into some kind of "Night of the Living Dead" Zombie-land. I feel it too. But there are still others like us, who haven't yet been infected by the zombie virus which apparently morphed from the toxic loans and became contagious.

Well, I guess we are on some kind of precipice to disaster either way. But must we have to choose between two evils? Do we really have to protect all the spoiled rotten people who can't bear to face the consequences of their irresponsibility and orgy of credit spending?

I'm a vicious momma, and that means tough love sometimes. I don't coddle my children and try to protect their feelings too much when they've made really bad decisions. I want them to learn to face the consequences of their freedom. Freedom means being allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. A good parent can't prevent every bad decision a kid makes, and a good parent can't really pay the price for them. If they do, the kids become spoiled and entitled and irresponsible. I love my children more than life, and they love me. We are very affectionate, but they know that I won't excuse a bad decision or bad behavior. They know that they must take responsibility and face the consequences. I don't want them to think that the government will do more for them than I will.

Part of America has become some kind of sub-nation of entitlement zombies. They think that are entitled to as much credit as they want, without having to earn it. They think that they are entitled to college educations, paid for by their parents and/or the govenment at huge expense. They think they are entitled to get a house and cars that they can't really afford. This is not a good economic strategy.

What is wrong with all the so-called free market conservatives who are trying so hard to preserve a totally unsustainable economic status quo by injecting some ungodly amount of money into it? It will only calm the credit junkies for a very short time. I remember when interest rates were in the double digits and when getting a mortgage required jumping through all kinds of hoops. We survived that just fine. We worked hard and earned what we got.

I'm so disappointed in how the world is turning out for my kids who will be saddled with this for the rest of their lives. Some of us are more prepared than others for hard times, but in today's world somehow we are seen as the bad guys or the selfish ones for expecting others to be responsible and prepared too. It's just not right. I have plenty of compassion and empathy for people in truly desperate places, but cruel as it might sound, there's not so much for those who've been reckless and foolish and have expected so many entitlements without earning them.

Whatever happens, it won't be painless. But by God, I'm not letting the zombies eat my brain.

Assorted Thoughts on the "Crisis"

2008-09-29T14:50:00.002-04:00

For a nice time-line explanation of the events leading up to the current "crisis" click here. It's interesting how they kept denying that there were problems and then all of a sudden it was impending catastrophe. And we're supposed to believe what they are telling us now?

Show Me the Money

I really want to see some actual numbers and figures about the supposed financial catastrophe and "credit crisis." No one seems to want to give us, the taxpayers, any kind of details about who, where, what, when and how all of this money 'disappeared'. I pretty much understand a lot of that just from the bits of research I've done about it, but I can't find any actual numbers anywhere. Somebody needs to show me exactly how many and which banks and where they are that are on the verge of collapse and closing up credit. So far, we've just been told that they need this huge amount of money but they don't give us any real examples of where that amount comes from. I don't like all that secrecy and predictions of disaster without much evidence. It's too much like the climate change alarmism. I'm a skeptic.

All these places have been "cooking their books" apparently. Well, show me the money trail and where it disappeared. Don't just try to coerce and scare me into complying with this insane bailout without proving exactly why it's needed.

The Mexican Connection

I don't have anything against Mexicans, just illegal immigrants who exploit our system without really contributing to it. I've noticed that there aren't so many Mexicans around anymore. Gee, I wonder why. Well, let me tell you. The construction jobs dried up so they just packed up and left, often leaving houses that they were able to "buy" with money from banks who didn't seem to care that they weren't legal citizens. There is a house down the road from us that was abandoned by the Mexicans who "bought" it. There was always a Mexican flag flying from their porch, so that's how we know they were Mexicans. Okay, I don't know who financed their house, but now it's been sitting empty ever since the housing bubble burst and the construction jobs disappeared. The Mexicans were only here to make a quick dollar, and when those quick dollars stopped they left. How many other houses and mortgages have been abandoned all over the country in this same way? So much for Bank of America's courting the illegals with credit cards and whatever other credit they gave them. Why should I have to pay for that?

Also, two illegal immigrants are in custody suspected in the slaying of a 21 year old Alabama woman who was here on business and disappeared last week.

Lots of "Told You So"s

I know that of which I speak, and I've been saying it all along. It's just that no one was listening because they always think, "What can some dumb redneck housewife in Tennessee know about anything?" Okay, well, I've been predicting this mess for a while and even have offered up some great free advice to any interested, serious journalists on a big expose that probably would have won them a freakin' Pulitzer Prize or something if they recognized it and pursued it. Hey, I think I should get some kind of prize for seeing this coming even though most people weren't paying attention. So much for all the supposedly smart people who are screaming, "Why didn't anyone tell us?" Duh!! If a stupid redneck housewife in Tennessee can figure it out, then why couldn't they? Stupid is as stupid does, and I hope that all those supposedly superior people are figuring out just how stupid they really are.

September 2008

January 2008

February 2, 2007

February 19, 2007

The House Defies Pelosi

Apparently many Democrats, as well as Republicans, chose to listen to their constituents and vote no on the current bailout plan. Looks like all of Pelosi's, Dodd's, Reid's, and Frank's yelling and threatening didn't work after all. Maybe the House Republicans' plan should be the one that is pushed. Instead of a bailout at taxpayer expense, it is an insurance set-up like the FDIC which protects our bank deposits from bank failures. The House Republicans want the financial institutions to pay premiums into this new insurance that will protect people's other types of assets that are used by banks as their "currency" between themselves.

Stock Market Crash

Well, yeah, it's gonna hurt a bunch of people. But sometimes it takes really hard lessons to learn what's right and wrong. I'm not happy that the small amount of money I have invested in what was explained to me as "conservative, low-risk" funds is probably going to disappear. Well, it would be nice to at least be able to recover my initial deposits, but I knew full-well that these funds were not insured and that they might disappear someday. And that's why the money I put in them is small enough that losing it isn't going to ruin my life. I feel a little sorry for those who invested all their savings in the stock market, but then again, they should have known better.

One of my best, against-the-experts-advice decisions was to purchase a "whole-life" insurance policy in 1993. Every month since then I've sent in my little premium, and slowly but surely it has been growing at an interest rate that is better than most other savings since then. I'm pretty sure that my rate can't fall below prime - it never has although the rates have been up and down a lot over the years. Now I have to wonder how many of those "experts" who advised against whole life insurance have lost all their money in other types of savings? Well, this is an example of being conservative really paying off. I just don't want to gamble with so much money, and that is exactly what the stock market seems to have become. An institutionalized casino with all the house advantages of any other casino. Sorry, but even an adorable little baby can't convince me to waste my money on investing in things that don't look too secure:

Uh-Ah-Um-Uh-Uh, Yeah

2008-09-29T09:23:00.003-04:00

The "great orator" who's supposedly so much better than Sarah Palin:

He's completely incoherent and can't answer a simple question with a simple answer. This is for those who say Sarah Palin's answers are too long and irrelevant. Hah:

He doesn't even know how many states there are:

He's lost without a teleprompter:

Passing the Buck

2008-09-26T09:51:00.009-04:00

I think that McCain's dropping the campaign to go to Washington for the bailout negotiations was an honest and sincere gesture, putting the country's concerns above his own. If it helped or hurt him wasn't his main concern. Obama says otherwise, but that's to his advantage to be cynical and disparaging of his 'opponent'.

I think McCain was thinking that whoever is going to be the next President and will have to inherit the mess and its fallout really should at least be there to know first hand what exactly the Congress and White House are doing about it. Also, as a Senator *it's his job* to be there. Yeah, it's Obama's job too, but he's more interested in playing politics than actually doing something.

Obama blowing it off and saying "they can call me if they need me" sounded extremely selfish and arrogant as well as unconcerned about what his future job might involve. It is that casual disinterest in "regulating" the process that makes him look pretty hypocritical for blaming Bush and Co. for not keeping a good enough eye on things years ago. He's trying to pass the buck.

Passing the buck like that is the very reason why this thing has grown so out of proportion. All those people were passing the responsibility on to others while packing even more onto it as it goes, until now, and they're trying to pass it on to the responsible taxpayers.

And it really irks me that Bill O'Reilly has been harping on Bush and Co. about not warning everyone vigorously enough about this financial mess coming. Well, I think he's passing the buck too because he should be feeling some responsibility for not paying enough attention to the news over the years that suggested that this problem was on its way. And really, if he will be completely honest he will admit that if Bush came out and forcefully warned everyone about this back then, the Democrats would have crucified him and there probably would have been widespread financial panic and chaos. Then they would have totally blamed it on Bush, saying his alarmism caused it to crash and so on. Bill really needs to stop it with the Botox because it's not only seeping into his nuts, it's seeping into his brain too.

And another thing, what exactly is Bill's job as a highly paid media figure? Doesn't he realize that part of HIS responsibility, as such a prominent media presence (as he's always reminding everyone about his ratings), is to keep up with the news and spot the big, important stories developing? Stop passing the buck to the government. What was he paying attention to in 2003-2007? Why wasn't he reading the NYTimes and their stories about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and trying to look deeper into the issue? Isn't that the job of a journalist and/or commentator (especially one with lots of resources and assistants to do the grunt work)?

Apparently, he wants all the glory but none of the responsibility. Just like all those crooked hogs who kept feeding at the teats, even as they were drying up. Bill said nobody told him that his Merrill Lynch stock was worthless. Well, poor little baby. First of all, I don't think anyone should invest a lot of money in something that they don't really know that much about. But anyway, can't he see that the reason why his broker and the employees of Merrill Lynch and everyone else, including the government, didn't know is because the Congressional committees that were supposed to "regulate" this stuff were all caught up in the corruption themselves. They did everything they could to keep everyone ignorant about what they were doing. It wasn't just the CEOs but the Congress members too who were hiding things. They were almost caught when the "accounting scandals" were discovered, but they were sneaky enough to get past that. And that's why, when the President tried to address this issue, one of the main guys who should have been concerned - Barney Frank - sat there and denied that there was a problem at all and said that suggesting that there was one would actually cause problems. Fannie and Freddie should have been properly dealt with back then, but in trying to avoid a big financial crisis at that time they just passed it on to now. How hard is it to see how that worked out?

Why wasn't there good enough regulation already? Well, in 1999 President Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which loosened some rules about banking and also contained new laws regarding privacy of personal information. By passing that bill no one was advocating corruption or abuse within the financial industry in cahoots with the Congressional committees on banking and finance. The bill was intended to increase competition among banks so that people would have more choice, etc. There were mostly Democrats at the helms of both the Congressional committees as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's completely disingenuous to blame Bush for inheriting this whole setup. And let's try to remember that just after he was inaugurated our country was attacked in the most serious way by terrorists, so all the crooks were able go to work 'under the radar' since the responsible people in government were pretty distracted by dealing with national security.

So I hope that explains somewhat where that toxic buck came from and who started passing it in the first place. This isn't some fairy tale version of history. It's the real thing.

No, McCain hasn't been perfect, but I think he's been very honest and selfless in his work. And those who suggest otherwise should really stop because they can't offer any real evidence to the contrary or any justification of their own behavior.

PS To Bill O'Reilly, please stop blaming Bush for not warning the "people" about Fannie and Freddie. He even mentioned the need for reform in his 2008 State of the Union address:

On housing, we must trust Americans with the responsibility of homeownership and empower them to weather turbulent times in the housing market. My Administration brought together the HOPE NOW alliance, which is helping many struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. The Congress can help even more. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, modernize the Federal Housing Administration, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. These are difficult times for many American families, and by taking these steps, we can help more of them keep their homes.

Whose fault is it that they weren't watching his speech? Or if they were watching, why weren't they paying attention to these things? As citizens of this country it is our responsibility to be informed, and Bush was trying to inform us in the one most important speech of the year.

Another quote from that speech:

The strength -- the secret of our strength, the miracle of America, is that our greatness lies not in our government, but in the spirit and determination of our people. (Applause.) When the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, our nation was bound by the Articles of Confederation, which began with the words, "We the undersigned delegates." When Governor Morris was asked to draft a preamble to our new Constitution, he offered an important revision and opened with words that changed the course of our nation and the history of the world: "We the people."

Okay, so like I said before, we the people are really the bosses, so let's start acting like it and finally vote out all the corruption and crooks instead of letting them hold us hostage and demanding from us some hundreds of billions of dollars ransom. That's just is not the American Way.

Transcend the Poison and Boot the Bastards

2008-09-23T18:46:00.001-04:00

This whole financial scandal is full of poison, and it's making many of us very sick. On top of that I've been dealing with my own monthly possession by some kind of evil, satirical demon, as well as going through a battery of tests to make sure there isn't any more cancer trying poison my body. I am working on transcending all of this poison. Here is a dose of reality to try to help others transcend it too.

Let's look at the reality of who said what in recent years about the problems surrounding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

The NYTimes reported this Sept. 11, 2003:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending.

However, what many do not recall is that Bush wanted to tighten oversight with a new regulatory board for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other government recipients for the express purpose of addressing bad loan practices — and Democrats blocked it.

What Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, said (page 2 of article linked above):

These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.

Well, so much for the Democrats' argument that the Bush Administration ignored the building problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is responsible for it. Obama, read it and weep, or at least quit falsely blaming Bush and McCain for all of this mess which is rooted much more in the corruption of the Congressional Democrats on the committees involved in finances and banking.

May 25, 2005, John McCain, speaking to the Senate:

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

The legislation was blocked by Democrats, with the assistance of a few Republicans.

October 27, 2005, NY Times reports:

Responding to the accounting scandals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the House of Representatives approved legislation on Wednesday overhauling the regulatory oversight of the two huge mortgage financing companies.

...

The White House issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the legislation adopted by the House, saying it envisioned a regulatory regime that "is considerably weaker than that which governs other large, complex financial institutions."

The legislation "fails to include key elements that are essential to protect the safety and soundness of the housing finance system and the broader financial system at large," the White House statement said.

That legislation died in the Senate. Did you catch that part about the Bush Administration wanting stronger regulation? Yeah, that's right. Whatever tripe Obama is pushing is spoiled rotten and full of toxins. We all know why this legislation failed. It was purely political games by the Democrat-dominated Congress because they hate Bush so much they were willing to sacrifice all of our future financial security just because they didn't want him to "win" anything. That, and they used the excuse that they thought he was seeking too much power. blah, blah, blah

All of that being said, can we please put to rest the wrong ideas that the Republicans are at fault for our "financial crisis"? How can Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank sleep at night knowing that they were actually big players in preventing the problems from being fixed before it became such a huge "crisis"? Pelosi has said that the Republicans and the Bush Administration failed to properly regulate things so that they got out of control. Well, Nancy, why can't you properly regulate the corruption right under your nose (Charlie Rangel, et al)?

Let's just stop it and do what Obama won't do: transcend the poison of the old political games. Yes, it's difficult and I'm having trouble doing that myself, but Jesus Christ, they (and we) are going to have to put all of that political nonsense aside and actually try to solve some problems. Will the Democrats please just stop demanding all these extra things that only complicate the problems? In Sunday's New York Times:

Ms. Pelosi said Democrats would also insist on “enacting an economic recovery package that creates jobs and returns growth to our economy.”

Jesus F. Johnson, is she a complete idiot or what? Oh, sorry, I'm still dealing with some residual poison. ;-) How about we just try to solve this one huge problem first before we start adding all these conditions and extras that will only complicate and impede progress? Growing jobs is important, but let's get this mortgage situation under control first. And as soon as the government-secured mortgages can get properly straightened out and distributed/sold to financial institutions that can actually handle them, then the broader "economic recovery" can be addressed. Sometimes it's necessary to prioritize and handle one thing at a time, instead of trying to kill fifty birds with one stone.

Truth be told, I tend to agree that there needs to be a serious restructuring of how corporations and financial institutions do business. In my utopian ideas it wouldn't be necessary for the government to regulate so much because all the businesses would naturally want to be ethical, fair, and responsible for their own behavior and the consequences of that behavior. But I know that is only an idealistic fantasy and that a lot of people won't regulate themselves without force or fear of severe penalties.

My own ideas are fairly radical, and maybe even "liberal" depending on how you define it. ;-) I've never believed that the corporate business model is really that good because it inherently encourages too-risky behavior without tough enough consequences. Inevitably when a corporation fails, especially the very large ones, it becomes a private profit-public loss situation because the "owners" aren't held accountable for the losses. The value of their ownership in the company is often not at all related to any real, physical assets. Their wealth is just an illusion based on an assumption of future performance. It's just a bad model to begin with, although I do know and somewhat appreciate some of the "pro" arguments for it. But any other purely private business just can't survive or function by doing things in the same way as corporations, and they can't rely on public money for bailing them out when they screw up.

Let's look at this $700,000,000,000 that the government wants to "liquidate" the whole mess, which apparently accounts for only about 10% of all mortgages in the US (though I haven't found any solid numbers on that so it could be inaccurate). Well, I'd say 10% isn't really that much, but because of the fucked up ways that the banks overinflated the values of them and lent much more money than what the actual collateral was worth, the problem seemed to exponentially grow somehow. Anyway, if I've done my math right, which I probably didn't because every time I try to use real numbers I mess up for whatever reasons ;-), every single man, woman, and child in the US either owes the government over $2000, or you might could say they each will own $2000 worth of other people's houses until the mortgages are paid off.

Okay, I suppose the socialists might be cheering about this movement into that direction. But frankly, I don't like it, although logically and rationally and morally speaking no one can place any claims, or liens as they call them, on our mortgage because ours isn't in any kind of trouble. It's just between us and our credit union. I just hope that all those other supposedly 90% of people like us will actually see some "return" on our investments in other people's properties. I'd say it would be fair for the government, as soon as they are able (if ever?), to send us a dividend of that $2000+ per person plus interest (but definitely not at a "sub-prime" rate). ;-) What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak. Or to be a little more "charitable" they could just give us future tax credits for those amounts, including some percentage of interest.

Does anyone really think it's a good idea to trust the current Congress to improve anything? Regardless of your political leanings it should be very clear that these people who are supposed to be "public servants" paid with our money have done a piss-poor job. In fact, I think we should have many of them charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors" and bribery (in the guise of lobbyists' payments). A good explanation of what "high crimes and misdemeanors" means in this context is found in an article by Jon Roland:

... the key to understanding it is the word "high". It does not mean "more serious". It refers to those punishable offenses that only apply to high persons, that is, to public officials, those who, because of their official status, are under special obligations that ordinary persons are not under, and which could not be meaningfully applied or justly punished if committed by ordinary persons.

Our Congress is sworn in and under the obligation to uphold their Oath of Office. This puts the responsibility on them to act on our behalf. I would lead an insurrection if that's what it would take to get all those corrupt bozos out of office. I am a conservative, but I'm a rebel too. Perhaps a revolutionary conservative is a paradox, but here I am anyway. ;-)

As for all those "executives" of these failed and brink-of-failing financial services companies, I think they should be charged with several serious crimes. Stop it with this namby-pamby fiddle-farting around with some big bailout that we can't really afford. Throw the bastards in jail for practically treasonous fraud. Yes, treasonous is a very strong word, but if you believe that the failings of these companies without (and possibly even with) a bailout will actually lead to the complete collapse of the US, and possibly global, economy, then okay, that looks awfully serious to me. They've essentially weakened our country's security in every way.

At least treat them like drug-dealers and seize all their property that they gained from their criminal activities. Make them pay for the mess they created. Of course, that wouldn't be enough to cover it all, but at least it would be something coming from the criminals who caused it. Back in the good old days, people like that would have been dealt with quickly. They certainly wouldn't be rewarded for their betrayals and treachery.

I hope that everyone who reads this will see the truth. And spread the word. I mean really. We're actually the bosses here. So let's act like it.

Amen, go in peace. :-)

Update: Shortly after finishing this and posting it, I heard on the news that the FBI is investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Bros., and AIG. Praise the lord! I hope they are investigating some Congress members too. (of both parties, whoever has been instrumental in allowing the banking fraud to continue)

21st Century Laundry

2008-09-22T15:58:00.005-04:00

Over the weekend I bought a new washing machine because my old one was pretty much dead and had already been repaired at least three times since I got it in 2004 (I think). Well, I do an awful lot of laundry and the thing wore out that quick. Also, the last two months' electric bills have been over $500. Ouch! That's about double what we've been averaging. Part of it is probably the addition of the pool, but that is worth some extra expense and it won't run all year anyway. Also, TVA has announced a 20% increase in their rates, so that increase is passed on to us.

So I was thinking about all the other big electricity consumers in the house and what my options might be to reduce our bills. Since the old washer wasn't spinning very well to get enough water out of the laundry, I've had to run the dryer longer and that is a big energy user because of the heating element. I really couldn't afford both a new washer and dryer, so I figured if I got a new washer it might help the most since it could reduce the drying time.

Okay, just a quick aside, hanging our clothes out to dry is not really a healthy option here because of all the allergens like pollen that would collect in the laundry. We all tend to have problems with various pollens so it would be pretty dumb, and unhealthy, for us to add a lot more to the household by drying our clothes outside. Incidentally, Knoxville is rated as one of the worst cities in the US for allergies and asthma.

The old washer was a typical American top-loader, which I think of as a very 20th Century design. The new washer is a front loading Bosch (German company but the machine was actually made in the USA):

At first I was a little skeptical that it would actually clean our sometimes very dirty laundry without so much water. But so far it seems to do very well. It's kind of amazing. And I'm only having to run the dryer about half the time, or less even, that before. Wonders never cease! I guess some people get these things because they want to save the planet or some other lofty goal, but frankly I just did it to save my checkbook. ;-)

And it cost about the same as a replica of an old wringer-style washer like my grandma used to have. I still think those are cool, but the Bosch is even cooler. And smarter because it automatically senses the size of the loads and adds water accordingly, as well as having a special sanitizing cycle and an extra energy efficient option, if I am feeling especially "green". ;-) I'll add a note after the next electric bill saying whether or not it has helped.

Another nice bonus is that I'm not having to spend as much time messing with the laundry either. So that means more time for blogging. :-)

Tennessee Rep's Son Suspected Palin Hacker

2008-09-22T11:22:00.002-04:00

Wow, another embarrassment for a Tennessee Democrat. David Kernell, son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis (in the State House, not the US House), is under investigation for the hacking of Palin's personal Yahoo email account. According to WBIR, on Sunday morning FBI agents served a federal search warrant at the Knoxville UT student residence of David Kernell. Apparently, witnesses say Kernell and his friends, who were having a "party," fled the apartment when the FBI agents arrived.

Terry Frank has posted images from Kernell's facebook pages. She also reports that Kernell is a "self-described 'Obamacrat'." Commenters on her blog also suggest that Kernell is closely related to David Plouffe, a campaign manager for Obama, but it looks like any evidence for that claim has been already erased from the Internet, if it ever really existed. Is it just a rumor or a cover-up? We might never know.

There is also some speculation suggesting that Kernell is also known as "Rubico" on the Internet.

The Truth About Big Government

2008-09-20T11:15:00.000-04:00

Saw these at Xanthippa's and wanted to post them too. They are very much worth the roughly twenty minutes to watch them.

White Trash and Proud of It

2008-09-18T17:11:00.011-04:00

Canadian columnist, Heather Mallick, has called Sarah Palin's supporters "white trash" and has said Alaska is full of "drunks and crazy people," as well as saying very insulting things about Palin's teenage daughter's boyfriend.

Well, Ms. Mallick, I'm a white trash redneck and proud of it. And I think you and all of your Canadian elitists should be taken out behind the woodshed, or outhouse, ;-) and be whipped with some hickory branches, or maybe even some thorny blackberry branches. What you people just don't have is any respect for anyone who is different from you, and to me, that is much, much worse than being a country bumpkin or redneck.

I'm really shocked at the hatred directed at all of us normal people. But I guess I'm not that shocked about the hypocrisy spouted by so-called feminists and other rabid liberal opinionists.

Now here's this Mary Mitchell who says,

"Sarah Palin makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama's mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt."

Well, you know what, Obama makes me sick with all his lies and cheap shots and fake "change" based on what, class conflict and pitting the "haves" against the "have-nots" instead of focusing on the the real source of the trouble which is the very corruption in which he's been so entrenched and well-funded. Call me a racist if it makes you feel better, but it's not the color of his skin that makes me sick. It's his actions and character, or lack thereof. And there is no way you can compare me to that black columnist who hates Palin just because she's a white woman who "stole" Obama's "mojo."

And Wendy Doniger, Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago’s Divinity School, goes so far as to say this:

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.

Wow, now what exactly is the liberal feminist definition a woman? This is insane! I can't believe someone who is supposed to be well-educated could be so stupid. Well, actually, I'm not that surprised because of how many of these types I've encountered in my perusal of some "academic" blogs. Anyway, thirty years ago in the black community Obama wouldn't have been consider a "real" black because of his white mother. Oh, but I'm not allowed to say anything like that because that would make me a racist or something. Oh, God forbid I should even hint at some mildly race-related comment about the liberal Sacred ~~Cow~~ Pig, Obama.

And then there are other snobbish, elitist "academics" who proudly proclaim their hatred for Sarah Palin and try to defend their hatred by diminishing all of Palin's accomplishments by saying that she's just a "token feminist." And also claims that her hatred is justified because she thinks Palin is "rich." Great, that's such a perfect "academic-like" reason for hating anyone. ;-)

And really, all of this proud hatred is just completely stunning and unprecedented. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't even a fraction of this kind of elated hatred spouted so blatantly and cavalierly about black people back in the days when the civil rights movement was just beginning. I mean, wow, I just can't believe it.

You know what I really think, and this is not because of any hatred for anyone, is that all those who are so proud of their intolerance and ill will towards "white trash" or "rednecks" or Sarah Palin who actually does represent a great many normal, average women should be gathered up and whipped to shreds with those thorny blackberry branches until they learn the real meaning and consequences of their hatred.

Call me an evil conservative bitch if you like, but it's about time that those of us who have been so denigrated for so long stood up and said, "Enough, already!"

After all, no one ever said that democracy was supposed to be easy. ;-)

The Vicious Momma has spoken. Amen, go in peace. ;-)

PS In case anyone reads this and is somehow disappointed, please understand that the point of this post is to hold up a mirror and reflect back to all those intolerant haters exactly how ugly their hatred looks. To my liberal friends whom I love and don't want to offend, I know that not all liberals, feminists, etc are so full of hatred as the examples in this post.

Invasion of Palin's Email Is UnConstitutional

2008-09-18T17:11:00.008-04:00

It's just completely sickening to see what horrible things some people do and get away with doing. The hacker(s) who violated Sarah Palin's privacy by invading her email and making them public should be hunted down and prosecuted at the fullest extent of the law.

Speaking of the law, no, I'm not a lawyer or any kind of academic expert about it, but the way I see it one should not have to be in order to understand the basic foundation of all our laws, The US Constitution.

I've been in an argument about why this hacking event does or does not fall under the authority of the Fourth Amendment. Apparently, back in 1984 the Supreme Court, in its excessive vigor to fight the "War On Drugs," decided that the Fourth Amendment only applies to government agencies and not to private citizens. That was the majority opinion, but there were some dissenting opinions too with which I mostly agree. I think that case was an excellent example of when the dissenters were really the more correct ones. Oddly enough, I seem to be in agreement with the Justices who were considered more "liberal." Well, sometimes I think these labels are pretty meaningless when it comes to common sense and careful rationality and concern for privacy and personal rights and freedoms as prescribed by the Constitution.

The Supreme Court does have the final say about what our laws mean, but it is possible for it to come to the wrong conclusions based on their political leanings and the political environment of the time. And it is always possible for new cases to be brought that re-examine old rulings.

In today's political environment, in which individuals have so much more ability through technology to invade and violate the privacy of others, often even more so than 'government agents," it would be a good idea to look again at the Fourth Amendment and how it must apply to individuals and private groups in addition to government agents. There absolutely must be some serious reconsideration about requiring individuals and private groups to respect the right of privacy of others by including them under the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."

While it seems like common sense that violating people's "persons, houses, papers, and effects" are already covered by all the laws against trespassing and theft, apparently it looks necessary to in today's culture and situation to make the invasion of personal privacy an even more serious crime, much like so many of the decisions regarding Freedom of Speech and the other First Amendment rights.

Okay, maybe this is an overly simplistic or naive point of view, but sometimes that's what it takes to see through all the obfuscation and overcomplicated mess that other people want to use to defend their wrong ideas. I don't think anyone with a brain could really argue against strengthening our rights to privacy, whether the violators are private citizens or government agents. Without proper privacy and respect for others' privacy there can be no real Freedom of any kind.

Throwing in the Towel

2008-09-18T17:11:00.003-04:00

The way things are going these days with the crooks on Wall Street and all the other dummies getting bailed out with taxpayer money, we are seriously considering throwing in the towel and closing up shop. It's just not worth it anymore when my husband works 60-70 hour weeks crawling under nasty houses, getting his hands all cut up and burned, and dealing with all the other very difficult jobs required in the HVAC business when we pay our bills, pay our outrageous taxes, and all the benefits seem to be going to everyone else.

Sure, we have been able to build a nice house and have some nice cars, but that is ONLY because HE HAS WORKED HIS ASS OFF AND HAS REALLY PAID FOR THOSE THINGS WITH HIS OWN EFFORT, instead of relying on government help and bailouts or by taking advantage of other people or taking stupid risks and so on. IF he had ever taken advantage of anyone we would sure as hell be a whole lot richer today than we are because truth be told, most people are pretty stupid idiots who are pretty easy to take advantage of anyway. But we're not really "rich", but just part of that shrinking middle class who is shrinking because we are finally figuring out that we are the ones being exploited by everyone else.

Yes, I'm so angry about these things that I could be spitting venom. We SHOULD NOT have to pay for all the stupid, bad decision and laziness of other people. It is NOT our responsibility or moral obligation to rescue everyone else who has acted in irresponsible ways.

Maybe I should be looking forward to owning part of the big financial giants who are now going to rely on our tax money to survive. But of course, I know not to hold my breath waiting for any dividends on our FORCED investment.

What all the stupid people never consider is that when people like us, who have made honest livings and have supported so many other people through our efforts, decide to give up, that wellspring that they've sucked dry is going to stay fucking dry. Then what are they going to do?

When the system has made it so unprofitable for people to actually work very hard to support themselves, then they aren't going to do it.

I feel like just saying, "Fuck it all!" Let's just do like everyone else and stop paying our house payments, taxes, and all the other things that so many people aren't doing.

If the bank calls and says, "Where is your house payment?" I will answer, "Call AIG or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. They have it."

Surviving Cancer

2008-09-17T15:43:00.003-04:00

I think I can now officially proclaim myself a Cancer Survivor, not only for surviving the cancer deaths of my parents but also of my own little skin cancer. Today we got the pathology report from my second biopsy that was done last week, and all of the bad cells have been removed. :-)

So it's time to celebrate.

Hogs In Suits

2008-09-17T11:10:00.001-04:00

The full content of John Gibson's commentary yesterday:

Lehman Brothers collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago.

Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs.

A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama.

Now remember, he's only been in the Senate four years, but he still managed to grab the No. 2 spot ahead of John Kerry — decades in the Senate — and Chris Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional Democrats and the Clinton White House, designed to make mortgages available to more people and, as it turns out, some people who couldn't afford them.

Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington Democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration's White House Budget Director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected $50 million. Jamie Gorelick — Clinton Justice Department official — worked for Fannie and took home $26 million. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama's VP search committee, has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae CEO job.

Now remember: Obama's ads and stump speeches attack McCain and Republican policies for the current financial turmoil. It is demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man attacking McCain — Sen. Obama — was at the head of the line when the piggies lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks.

Sen. Barack Obama: No. 2 on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored politicians after just four short years in the Senate.

Next time you see that ad, you might notice he fails to mention that part of the Fannie and Freddie problem.

Also according to the Center for Responsive Politics:

Lehman Brothers has given $9.2 million through employees and its PAC since 1989, with 54 percent of that going to Democrats. Clinton and Barack Obama top the list of all-time recipients for the company, collecting $410,000 and $395,600 respectively.

I think it needs to be said many times that when Obama blames the Republicans for the current "financial crisis" he is being a bit more than disingenuous. I would go as far as to call him a liar. So much for his promise to transcend the old political games. I'm pretty disappointed in how he's come around to that.

I do recall back around 2004, or thereabouts, maybe in one of his State of the Union addresses, President Bush spoke about his wish that more people could become homeowners because he thought it would make them more financially secure. Unfortunately, the greedy Bastard-Pigs-In-Suits who controlled the big financial services companies, who apparently were very invested in the Democrats, took that as some kind of free pass for taking advantage of the people's desires to become homeowners.

I watch a fair amount of TV, mostly news, nature/science documentaries, and a few "reality shows" sometimes. Well, I think it's a good way to gauge the trends of our society to see what is foremost in the popular culture. Commercials are one big source of these trends. Before the housing bubble burst, there were always very many commercials for mortgage and lending companies who were pushing these ridiculous, but superficially attractive, offers for people to get loans, e.g. for 125% of the value of their homes, and those very low "introductory rates" that would allow payments of only, for example, $900 on a loan of $200,000. Also, many of the offers told us that "everyone is approved" or some such encouragement for people to apply who really had no business getting big loans in the first place. Of course, many people are ignorant about these gimmicks and/or the lenders were pretty sneaky about the actual terms of those loans.

Let me explain why those lenders foolishly threw money at so many people. They were thinking that when the low introductory rates ended and people could no longer afford their payments, then they could foreclose on the loans and resell those homes for at least the value of the loan because housing values were climbing so much. They either didn't see that it was a bubble that was going to burst, or they knew and didn't care. And yes, I do blame the lenders more than the borrowers because any reputable and responsible lender is not going engage in trickery and very risky practices in hopes of getting some big pay-off from overly inflated collateral.

A big factor in the housing bubble bursting was when the construction industry responded to the higher demand for new homes, that people wanted to buy with those over-valued mortgages so that they could get more house for less money. They pretty much started a home-building boom because they thought that they would be able to sell all these new houses. It made the economy look pretty good for a while because more people were working and because the increased construction required more materials, supplies, and all the other stuff that is needed when there is a lot of building. It looked like great economic growth.

But it was just an illusion because it was ultimately based on some worthless paper and money games with no real collateral backing it up, not even all those houses out there with no one able to buy or sell them. It was not that capitalism failed. It was that some crooks pretending to be capitalists built their 'house of cards' out of speculation and greed without any solid foundation. You know, most actual functioning businesses just cannot and will not survive by trying to sell something that doesn't really exist. Didn't anyone learn anything from that DotCom bubble bursting?

If someone really wants to place some sort of final blame for these troubles we're in now, they should really look to the people at the top of the chain and who they support and who supports them and their actions. And if you really look you will see that it was not the "evil" capitalist Republicans who exploited the people's hopes and dreams for a better life. It was the Deomcrats who raked in millions at the expense of us all. Do the research. Look it up. Learn the reality and truth of the matter. And stop blaming the wrong guys. Blame the real Hogs in Suits who are pretending to be something else.

Amen, go in peace. ;-)

PS I love Neil Cavuto. He has some seriously big balls because he is the only person I've seen really stand up to Bill O'Reilly and put him in his place. Last night Cavuto was on the Factor and called Bill out on his wanting to blame the wrong guys for all of our troubles:

Bill wants the government to "watch" the big corporations in order to let us know when they are doing bad business. Well, that's a pretty naive view because it trusts the same guys who are the source of the trouble to self-regulate. It won't work. That approach never has worked. Besides, it sounds like he wants the government to be 'fortune tellers' (literally and figuratively) who can predict what companies will succeed or fail. Fortune-telling isn't a very solid business venture either, privately or publicly. ;-)

The real solution is to level the playing field by requiring all those big corporations to play by the same rules as the small businesses that can't and won't survive if they engage in ridiculous pretend capitalism and they aren't protected and bailed out by the government when it all fails for them. Cavuto is right that you can't blame the oil companies for having real profits because the oil companies are actually making money from real products and services and not some worthless paper. Don't penalize the successful capitalists for being successful. Bill O'Reilly should know that because he's always preaching that when it comes to his own money. ;-)

Bad Economy Affects Corvette Production

2008-09-16T09:01:00.002-04:00

Well, you know it's getting bad when the usually "recession-proof" Corvette suffers too-low sales. The Bowling Green, KY, plant will close for one week in October and then reopen with slower production.

Told You So

2008-09-15T18:52:00.003-04:00

The following is a quote from a 2-2-07 post in which I suggested that the banking and insurance industries were the source of many social evils:

And why is ExxonMobil the only scapegoat bad guy here? It's one of the biggest publicly traded companies in the world, number 6 according to this Forbes list. What too many people don't stop to think about is that if you hurt a large publicly owned company you are hurting everyone. Well, it's just like global warming, right? ;-)

Let me go off on a little tangent here about the top five on that list.

1 Citigroup United States (Banking)
2 General Electric United States (Conglomerates)
3 Bank of America United States (Banking)
4 American Intl Group United States (Insurance)
5 HSBC Group United Kingdom (Banking)

Banking and Insurance. Yeah. Like those are pristine industries that do nothing to harm and exploit the poor and elderly and the environment. If I were a well-paid journalist I'd do a fancy, in-depth expose on those industries in comparison to ExxonMobil, and I suspect that the results would show that overall ExxonMobil is a choirboy in moral comparison to the evil that the banking and insurance companies do to all of us. But I'm not a well-paid anything. I'm just a random blogger, so sorry, I can't invest the time and energy on that project for free. I'm a capitalist at heart. ;-)

Of course I was just spouting off and not really giving any justification for my intuition. However, turns out I was right anyway, but now that the shit has hit the fan I won't get any kind of credit for my perception and wisdom. Well, I'm pretty used to that by now. ;-)

Okay, I just wanted to say, "I told you so!"

Good Carbon

2008-09-15T15:28:00.000-04:00

Dear Barack Obama,

2008-09-11T10:44:00.003-04:00

Who do you think you are to decide that my personal offense and "outrage" are "phoney"? I do not feel my feelings because John McCain's campaign tells me to feel a particular way, and I think that your childish response to belittle so many of us reveals that you aren't really interested in "transcending" the old politics and probably don't have the diplomatic skills required of a President.

Yes, I am angry, and my feelings are real and serious. And why should I respect someone who refuses to even acknowledge that his comments really have offended someone, even if it was supposedly "innocent"? Is this how you get along with your wife and daughters? To belittle their feelings and tell them that they are "phoney" and that it's not your fault if you said something they might have taken wrong? Is it your personal tactic to blame all misunderstandings on other people instead of taking responsibility for saying something that is easily misinterpreted?

And I hope you do very much appreciate the velvet glove handling you continue to get from the media and all the talking heads, who apparently don't have the balls to actually admit that your comment was very ill-timed and ill-advised and that you would have shown much more maturity and fairness to apologize and move on instead of twisting it around to use to your own advantage. I feel like you've totally exploited my (and many others') feelings. That's just not very nice. It's just not nice at all.

I recommend that you grow a pair and admit your errors. Yes, it really is difficult to accept responsibilty for causing a big upset, even if you didn't really mean to, but that's what a real man would do.

Sincerely,
Vicious Momma

PS Please tell your pal, Bill O'Rielly, that he needs to lay off the botox because it's making him a p*ssy. It must have migrated down to his balls and paralyzed them. ;-)