"Batten Down The Hatches Captain..."

...And Full Speed Ahead...


I'm sitting here in the dark in my basement shop this evening working on the Old HP Laptop computer running on batteries...

by the light of a flashlight...

...fortunately with the internet Cable modem and router powered by my UPS in the upstairs office.

Right now I'm surrounded by a puddle of water about 1" deep in places around my feet.

You see, we have been POUNDED not once...but TWICE this evening with powerful thunderstorms which I'm sure at one time or other each contained a tornado, and while we missed the tornadic winds we did get excellent examples of pingpong ball to golf ball sized hail for five or ten minutes in each storm.

Then the second storm finally managed to inundate my gutters with torn leaves and other debris, and pile a two foot high dam of hailstones up against my basement door causing my floor drain to stop up and inundate half of my basement including my shop and storage area with about an inch of standing water in some places.

Now the problem is that there is more rain I can see coming on the internet radar, but it's still raining and lightening so much I'm afraid to go outside and try to stand on a ladder and to clear the gutters in the dark.

Maybe I'll get a new shingled roof out of this adventure, else go the path I'm taking with my bank and fire the insurance company and find someone that actually gives a damn in the process.

I knew I should have been working on the roof cleaning gutters rather than chasing a lawn tiller around the back yard last weekend.

Am I getting too old for this crap, or is it just me being lazy?

Government Sponsored General Motors' Lies

The Devil's In The Details...


My blog Idols over at Powerline blog pointed out this article in Forbes online which further clarifies the mis-statements--verging on outright fraud--contained in the latest round of General Motors TV ads and GM CEO Ed Whitacre's companion op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

In the WSJ piece Mr. Whitacre writes: "Today, General Motors is announcing that it has made a payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada. We're paying back—in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule—loans made to help fund the new GM.

Our ability to pay back these loans less than a year after emerging from bankruptcy is a sign that our plan for building a new GM is working."

What he fails to mention is that GM hasn't turned a dollar of profit yet...and they paid back only $6.7 billion out of $49.5 billion (including some earlier payments) the US Federal Government put into the company in 2008-2009.

He also fails to mention that in paying off the 7% loan using TARP funds (read that "other" taxpayer money previously given to them for "operating capitol"), it also allows the Obamamaniacs in the government to save face with the voters while they tell the US Department of Energy it's OK to loan GM yet another $10 billion at 5% for use in retooling their auto plants to meet the Government's own increased gas mileage (CAFE) standards in 2011.

Click on the link and read the entire article if you want to know more and can stand learning about the continuing stream of lies told by and on behalf of our first black president and his inept administration.

I have to go now and soak my head in ice water before it explodes, then finish packing in anticipation of heading over to South Carolina this afternoon for a long working weekend vacation.

Regards Y'all...

Haunted By "Cash For Clunkers"

I Told Everyone So...


I think some people thought I was crazy when I got heated up when I wrote More thoughts on cash for clunkers earlier.

Well...it looks like my predictions and economic analysis was was pretty darn spot-on, as reported in this News Paper story:

Berks dealers say federal clunkers program has made cheap, used vehicles harder to find

Dealers say program has made cheap, used vehicles harder to find
By Mike Urban
Reading Eagle

In her search for a cheap, used minivan for her and her husband, Krissy Dieroff has visited seven dealerships across Berks and Schuylkill counties in the last week, but to no avail.

"There's not much to pick from, and the ones we do find are overpriced," said Dieroff of Auburn, Schuylkill County, while browsing the lot of a city dealership on Monday.

Dieroff blames the shortage of inexpensive used cars on the federal cash-for-clunkers program, in which almost 700,000 used vehicles were traded in for newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and then scrapped.

continue reading here...

See ladies & gentlemen, the sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, Kumbaya singing patchouli stinking, grown-up 1960's hippies currently residing in Washington DC working under job titles with the words "Economic" or "Economics" in them don't really know shit from shineola...

of if they do they just ignore the realities in pursuit of their own hidden agenda.

Either way the Voters should be PISSED OFF when things like this...so called "Government" taking 700,000 vehicles off the road in the name of helping prevent climate change...ends up hurting the very people they claim to be helping in the process.

Now just you wait for phase two of this government program to kick in...GIVING vouchers to "working families" to help offset the higher vehicle costs coming as result of phase one. Or maybe like some kind of mutant game show or Publishers Clearinghouse they'll just show up in peoples driveways with a new Prius or Corvette.

As usual, I have to go now and soak my head...

Mathmatically Challenged Dumbasses Allowed To Ruin Run The Country

"Sports Writers" Only Marginally More Impaired Than "Political Pundits"...


I'm sorry Folks...but this rant has been coming on for a number of years now.

OK...having been a Georgia Tech sports fan...you can make that a little over thirty years now.

It's not anything contagious or genetic that makes my head spin when it comes to the topic of the politics of "sports rankings."

I guess it's basically just the rank odor which ALWAYS to my way of thinking seems to emanate from that little column in the newspaper and now on the Internet when you see how the minds of so-called "Sports writers" work...and then by default how the balance of college sports ranking systems work when everything is all said and done.

Unfortunately I think that the determination of political candidates on a national level (and possibly a state and local level) also suffers from a related fatal viral illness--but I'll get to that topic later if I have the time and energy.

Any hoooo, most of those of you that don't live under a rock or in a discarded packing crate under a bridge somewhere outside of Macon, Georgia probably know that the College Football rankings come out every Sunday afternoon/evening in the months of August through early January.

This year again is no exception.

I just tuned in my computer and found this evening's latest posting--looking for my GT Yellow Jackets to have launched into the top ten in the national rankings.

WRONG...

Solidly beating the number 4 team...Virginia Tech... a team which has occupied the spots of #6, #5, and then #4 in the AP "sports writers" poll for the past three weeks...only gets them the number 11 spot in the minds of these rocket scientists.

This after crashing out of their national rankings after falling from the number 14 spot because of getting beat by the AP's #20 ranked Miami team a month ago...the VERY SAME MIAMI TEAM which rose up to NUMBER NINE in the rankings that week after beating Georgia Tech at number 14?

WTF?

Let's face it people, if you are a college sports fan you have to understand the bias which exists in the "sports media" just like it exists in the national media covering everything from "the balloon boy" to political races.

Sports writers are, in my personal considered Redneck opinion, biased, narcissistic, idiotic assholes which let their personal interests and opinions threaten and influence what has grown over the past fifty years to be a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR enterprise...

the final outcome of each season of NCAA DIVISION I COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

And that's the reason I don't run around baseing my self worth and public stature on something which is so arbitrarily determined by a bunch of idiots that couldn't make 20 on the ACT or 1200 on the SAT before going to the local community college to get their journalistic education.

And I suspect that three quarters of these "sports writers" were also relegated to the position of "bench warmer" during their limited high school or college "sports careers."

"Sports Writers" or just "Monday Morning Quarterbacks," I totally hate people that spend their lives running around like walking billboards with University of Florida or Miami or Ohio State clothing, when the only time they ever likely set foot on a given College Campus was on Saturday afternoon trying to buy scalper tickets to "THE BIG GAME."

True sports fans are exactly that...FANS

"Sports Writers" should be neutral, but that's not going to ever happen...as evidenced by teams like Boise State and Iowa and Cincinnati hanging around endlessly in the top rankings of their Fraternity poll while at the same time none of these impotent teams ever manage to actually PLAY anyone with any credentials except their own conference "straw man" dummy teams.

In closing I have this to say about THAT to all of the people running around wearing a closet load of RED or Orange or GREEN or whatever color clothes with a big W or T or U on their chest or ass...

GET A REAL LIFE!!

Dammit

Turning Up My Squelch Knob...

Deaf & Speechless (OK...Almost)


Well, we managed to get another two inches of rain here today on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

Wait, let me double check my high tech digital rain gage...

...make that 2.09" since midnight.

Regardless, this weather totally SUCKS for doing things like painting closet doors or staining exterior wooden doors and as of this afternoon that's all I have left to do inside on the current yet never ending home improvement list.

Of course there's still a giant pallet full of mulch sitting tarped at the top of the driveway awaiting distribution and over three hundred pounds of high-strength concrete awaiting being mixed and poured into my home made stepping stone forms.

Then there's a boat load of new news stories out there about the closed door behind the scenes antics of the stupid %$#@ heads sitting around in DC legislating our financial and medical future.

Let me say THIS about THAT.

I personally say that you have to be intellectually corrupt else just plain stupid if you're not paying attention and further...

If you like what you do see that's going on in Washington on YOUR behalf (because you are a earned income, government mandated, income redistribution nanny state beneficiary)...

I hope you keep reading deeper into my archives, get really pissed off, leave me a nasty anonymous comment, then GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WEB PAGE.

On the other hand, if you agree with my ramblings and observations, feel free to stop by often...heck, if you're in the area stop by about 1 tomorrow and have a slice of tonight's left over pizza...

...you're welcome.

Kill The Lying, Thieving, Pompous Democratic Bastards

And Grind Their Bones To Make My Bread...






Maybe there really is hope for your Children and Grand Children...

(As for ME personally...long before I'm most likely gonna be out of this slowly failing, decaying earthly body...far...far...away from John "Served in Vietnam" sKerry / Ed "Jabba the Hut" Kennedy / "sHillary" Clinton / Arlen" Spinchter" / Obama Rama ding Dang's Socialistic Idealistic Unattainable Genocidal pandering wealth distribution legacy BULLSHIT regardless.)

My Weekly Plan

Simple Yet Obvious, Intelligent, Ideas From Someone Who's Been To Hell & Back...


1. Go to work on time.

2. Once you get there, do what you're paid to do, and do it well.

3. Don't buy anything you don't absolutely have to have. If it's not necessary in order to keep you or a family member breathing and keep your bodies covered from the elements, leave it on the shelf.

4. Pay Cash when you find you need something to keep someone you're responsible for breathing and/or to cover your bodies from the elements.

5. Come home and rejoice in the sanctuary of private property ownership and the company of those around you who live with you and depend on you being there each day.

6. Do your best to not call the idiots around you "IDOTS" or "MORONS" (or just stupid %$#@ selfish bastards) who are not following these rules while at the same time complaining about the lack of and need for government intervention in places the US Constitution never intended the government to go.

(Geez...I'm a brilliant smart ass...aren't I?)

Chance Of Snow On Saturday?

Global Warming In Full Force Here In Eastern Tennessee...


Ever since we moved up here from our little island to the new Turbo Pup Compound on the banks of the mighty Tennessee River, everyone has been telling us about the mild winters they've been having over the past ten or fifteen years.

I'm sitting around scratching my ever greying, ever balding head wondering to myself...

"Could it be...gasp...the results of ... Global Warming?"

Seriously, SOMETHING must surely be responsible for changing weather patterns?

Weather has always been the same everywhere hasn't it?

Everyone knows from being taught in school that the weather patterns--Summer & Winter--have been constant since before the human race invented the Ford Pinto the dinosaurs were wandering the planet Owl Gore was born after the latest immaculate conception the National Weather Service started keeping historical weather data records in the past 150 years
(and the half century since man made satellites have been orbiting the Earth....by the way...)

So any way, in spite of what I've been told by my well intended neighbors and co-workers, I'm expecting a return to above average winter precipitation (read that sleet, freezing rain, AND snowfall) this winter because:

A. I moved here with few socks, even fewer sweaters and nothing much heavier than a windbreaker in my size hanging in the closet by the front door.

B. Average weather patterns are exactly that...AVERAGE...and if you go through a dozen or so years of BELOW AVERAGE temperatures or rainfall or whatever, you're bound to see a number of seasons of ABOVE AVERAGE weather in order to provide the mathematical data required to keep the AVERAGE...AVERAGE.

Get that?

In other words, if your average precipitation is 60 inches in your back yard according to the National Weather service records, and you spend five or seven years getting only 45 inches of rain on your tomato plants, then there is a pretty good posibility that in the immediate future you might find yourself on CNN explaining how that little 3" deep creek in your back yard jumped up out of it's banks and flooded your Gas Grill and your Mother-in-Law's room in the basement when you got the missing 15 inches of rain over the period of one weekend.

That said, I'm looking at the weekend forecast for Knoxville, TN this morning and wishing it looked more like the windy 70 degree predictions for St. Simons Island.

The good news that I've been shopping a couple of times since relocating back into the real world, so in addition to the 2 KW generator sitting unopened in its shrink wrapped box in the basement (left over from my earlier Hurricane contingency preparations), I now have a pair of winter gloves, a Columbia Outdoors Ski Jacket, and a couple more pairs of socks.

The new sweaters are still on the "to do" list, however.

With average snowfall here running about 11.5", and the past few years being roughly half that total, things could get quite interesting for a guy that doesn't even own a snow shovel or a sled.

My feet get cold just thinking about it...

The Usual Suspects

Look...




Any questions as to who benefited (and by default who should have known) from the goings on in Washington and on Wall Street?

Yeah...I thought so...

Wondering About The Truth??

Proof McCain Was On The Issue In 2005...


Been listening to the lamestream media play Bwarny Franke lisping his way through his baseless denials (not the river in Egypt) about his and his fellow Democrats involvement in the current financial/mortgage"non-crisis?"

Been watching the TV showing Obamarama looking all presidential as he tries to mitigate the circumstances?

Then Google Senate bill S-109, or just click on this link and save yourself the trouble:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

Once there, you'll see a page that looks like this (click on the image to enlarge):

Now look at the bill's co-sponsors and you'll see this:

And if you click on the "Summary Button" on the website you'll see these words...

1/26/2005--Introduced.

Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 - Amends the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (another Republican effort to fix this "problem"--VRR) to establish: (1) in lieu of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); and (2) the Federal Housing Enterprise Board.
Sets forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions of the Agency, including provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and (8) reporting.

Amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to establish the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation. Transfers the functions of the Office of Finance of the Federal Home Loan Banks to such Corporation.

Excludes the Federal Home Loan Banks from certain securities reporting requirements.
Abolishes the Federal Housing Finance Board.

Can't you see that most all of the lamestream media, and virtually every one of the serving Dem's are lying partisan idiots...one and all...???

UPDATE 7:05 AM

Then there's this You Tube Video just in case you haven't seen it:



Are You starting to see the light yet?

Burning Down The House

Lairs, Liars, Pants On Fire . . .


Crank up the volume on your computer speakers and watch this short video story in it's entirety:

Replay video Share video Watch more videos

There's a test later...so pay close attention...

Update: 10/1/08

You Tube took this video down not once but TWICE, but Rodger over at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical saved the day and has it up.

Are They Minting Money In Washington, Or Just Plain Stealing It In Tennessee?

Reaping What You Sew...


Are you, like me, spending any time scratching your head or other body parts wondering about the "Mortgage Crisis" and the other pending "financial meltdowns" going on up there in NY and Washington DC?

For a simple bit of clarification of how we got to where we are I suggest that you check out this NY Times story which might as well be considered to be the nine year old preface to the current drama we're watching today...

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people [emphasis mine...VRR] and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.


Let me caution you that I have a slightly different take on this debacle, in as much as if you listen to the Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats et. al. they are screaming that they have nothing to do with the current situation..."it's all the Bush Administration's mismanagement of the economy."

I'll buy exactly none of that garbage because the Democrats did in fact apply pressure to get people with crappy employment history and poor credit into mortgages in the late 1990's, continuing even to today as reported in the Times story.

Let me be clear--the Democrats fingerprints are all over this crime scene, but the prints are smeared by the handling that the Republican dominated Congress of that time gave the issue as they bumbled and fumbled their way through the "bipartisan" "reaching across the isle in cooperation" process they exude repeatedly on the TV sound bites.

Further, to hear the conservative pundits like Sean Hannity tell it, it's all the blue collar/minority pandering Democrats fault...PERIOD...and that take on things falls quite short of the truth and reality.

Fanny Mae WANTED to be allowed to make the money associated with buying "sub-prime" loans and collecting the associated higher interest rates they earned, confident in the fact the the Federal By-God Government of the United States of 'Merica would step in and cushion the blow should things turn south as they have today.

And the mortgage originators--savings and loans and banks and such--also wanted in on the action and needed to have a place to park the loans they made after the deal was done and they needed a fresh supply of money to lend.

Where do the bankers get their money?

Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac...in the NY Times own words:

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

It's clear to me after doing a little studying that going back to the repeal/modification of the Glass Act, again under Clinton in 1999, that this whole gang of scoundrel politicians, bankers, and corporate executives knew exactly what they were doing and worst of all, they knew that they were making huge amounts of money while at the same time relying on you and I--the American Taxpayers--to underwrite their risk should things go sour.

And go sour they did, and thus today I being told that I'm looking at handing over about $3,500 of MY MONEY this year (seven hundred billion divided by 200,000,000 taxpayers) to cover the cost of corporate compensation of assholes getting fired for doing a poor job and deadbeat fellow citizens that can't or won't pay for their homes.

What kills me is they're letting the people stay in their houses under "renegotiated terms" while I pony up the extra $3,500 in addition to the near $20,000 I'm paying for my own house, on time each and every month.

Welfare for the wealthy and unscrupulous, that's all this amounts to.

That, and yet another experiment in socialism gone bad at taxpayer expense.

Just wait until you hand over the health care system to these same elected idiots that can't help but screw up a two hundred year old banking system.

When your private parts swell up and start falling off or your eyeball pops out of it's socket and you're told that you can see a specialist sometime next year, don't come crying to me because I'm just gonna tell you...

I TOLD YOU SO

Over 100% Of Americans Will Believe Any Made-Up Statistic

See What I Mean?


That will be all...for now...

The Means To Be (Less) Than Average

More Government Statistical Mumbo Jumbo...


I don't know exactly what set this rant off this morning.

The thought process went something like this:

A. Start thinking how stupid it is for the Imperial Federal Government of the By-God United States to pass laws so some local guy building a country club can't harvest some coal on his giant property by strip mining the ore and selling it rather than just mindlessly bulldozing the mineral into the low spots on his land.

B. Next start ranting in your head about all of the other things that the government has screwed up over the years in the name of looking out "for our own good" while soaking the people that are successful to pay for the ineptitude of what turns out to be a relatively small part of the population.

The break down in the process comes when the government, in their effort to prove that there is a "problem" or a "need" in the first place, has to massage the numbers--often outright lying and cheating--in order to prove that they are mandated to sign a new "entitlement program" into law because "the Majority of Americans" support the process.

That said, I'd like to get into to my initial topic this morning, the difference between the mathematical term "AVERAGE" and "MEDIAN." After all, when you think about it clearly, there is a significant difference between the two words.

An AVERAGE, simply put, is the sum of a group of numbers (grades, temperatures, or in the government's war on poverty...income) divided by the number of numbers you added together to get the total.

Is your head hurting yet?

Stay with me here...I'll try to be clear and relatively brief.

The MEDIAN, on the other hand, is the number in that same group of numbers that falls in the position where HALF the amounts are higher and Half are lower.

Let's look at a few practical examples:

Let's say that you start your own country and you have a total of fifteen citizens with income that looks like the following table (subsitute the word Median for the word Mean as I've been corrected in the comments):

Holy Toledo...notice that the Average income is over ten times the Median Income?

That's because if you look at the list carefully you'll see that SEVEN taxpayers make more than $66,000 and another SEVEN make less than $66,000.

Now suppose that being a Government, just for fun you start meddling with the tax roles, giving deductions to some people based on income because you know that you can still run the government by paying for the "deductions" and "earned income" credits with money from your taxpayers making greater than the "median" income. Something like this:



Notice what happened to the Average and Median numbers? The Median is exactly the same, while the average income only fell by about $10,500.

See, everything is fine when it comes to funding the government through taxes, while at the same time you've removed one third of your population from the burden of paying taxes. In fact, those same five people are not only still making their original average of about $27,000 per year--

BUT they're also getting the "earned income" credits (unearned tax refunds) so their earnings actually went UP by allowing the government to transfer money from the top two thirds into their pockets at government gunpoint.

OK, maybe the government isn't really all that bad you say, so now lets suppose that you come to your senses and mostly leave the income numbers alone for the lower income earners, but you still play games with the upper income brackets by doing your math in a screwy manner--saying that if you don't have "wages, salary, or tips" then you have no income.

This is actually how the government calculates the number of people "living in POVERTY."

Under that scenario, this is what your income numbers would look like with the exact same original population if the upper earners didn't work every day but instead earned their income through INVESTMENTS and SAVINGS and owned their Home(s) free and clear:

How about them apples?

The Median income fell by 93%, and the Average income is down by 80%.

All I'm saying here is that the next time you hear some Morning News "Anchor" lamenting the 40 plus million Americans (including illegals) living without health insurance (but not health CARE) or the number of Children living in poverty, remember this little math lesson I delivered this morning when you feel the government reaching into your wallet.

It's not that I don't care, it's just that I would like to decide who gets how much of my money instead of letting a bunch of mathematically inept liars do it for me.

The rest is up to you...

(embarrassed blogger note...I mixed the terms "Mean" and "Median" indiscriminately in the original version of this writing as reader T.K. pointed out in the comments. All I can blame it on is poor editing and the early morning hour in which I was writing, but the balance of my points remain the same regardless of the name change...)