Has To Be Seen To Be Believed...
Sneak Peek #1 of Boston Legal: Dances with Wolves
Thanks to Rodge over at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
"Out, Damned Spot! Out, I Say!"
Where's Shakespeare When I Need Him?
Well ladies and gentlemen, after surviving most of a week spent battling some sort of funk that snuck into my nostrils and spread throughout my household, things are returning to being close to normal (IF things are ever "normal" here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.)
Missy the Turbo Pup, with her sleek, linear extended canine form, avoided contracting the malady but it knocked Pat on her behind for a couple of days and we're both still coughing and hacking the last vestiges out of our systems.
I'm severely distracted by a project deadline which was "aggressive" when first imposed last month and looms large on Monday, although the successful compliance with same lies in the hands of a subcontractor in Alabama.
We're also tasked with entertaining family guests for a long planned extended weekend visit, and with their arrival later this afternoon the house will be buzzing with activity including our first trip to Neyland Stadium to watch the University of Tennessee and Mississippi State struggle over a leather football.
Meanwhile I have to make mental preparation and pack my luggage in order to depart the scene of the local festivities in order to travel on Sunday with my sister to southern Ohio to pay our last respects to my Father's brother Tom who succumbed to the ravages of Cancer this past week.
Finally, after spending the past day in denial I'm realizing that my server PC here has early indications of having some funky crap spread by computer nerd criminals which is going to require a complete sweep of the system later this morning and a change in my "cookie settings" which I've recently relaxed in a fit of downloading and frivolous Internet cavorting.
Leave it to the Internet butt heads to continue to break into people's homes uninvited and screw around with expensive electronics.
Whether you enter my house through the back door , the basement window, or come in through a phone line or a cable connection I still wish a plague on your household and desire you are captured and tortured by a band of pillaging militant Pygmy Muslim terrorists.
Well ladies and gentlemen, after surviving most of a week spent battling some sort of funk that snuck into my nostrils and spread throughout my household, things are returning to being close to normal (IF things are ever "normal" here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.)
Missy the Turbo Pup, with her sleek, linear extended canine form, avoided contracting the malady but it knocked Pat on her behind for a couple of days and we're both still coughing and hacking the last vestiges out of our systems.
I'm severely distracted by a project deadline which was "aggressive" when first imposed last month and looms large on Monday, although the successful compliance with same lies in the hands of a subcontractor in Alabama.
We're also tasked with entertaining family guests for a long planned extended weekend visit, and with their arrival later this afternoon the house will be buzzing with activity including our first trip to Neyland Stadium to watch the University of Tennessee and Mississippi State struggle over a leather football.
Meanwhile I have to make mental preparation and pack my luggage in order to depart the scene of the local festivities in order to travel on Sunday with my sister to southern Ohio to pay our last respects to my Father's brother Tom who succumbed to the ravages of Cancer this past week.
Finally, after spending the past day in denial I'm realizing that my server PC here has early indications of having some funky crap spread by computer nerd criminals which is going to require a complete sweep of the system later this morning and a change in my "cookie settings" which I've recently relaxed in a fit of downloading and frivolous Internet cavorting.
Leave it to the Internet butt heads to continue to break into people's homes uninvited and screw around with expensive electronics.
Whether you enter my house through the back door , the basement window, or come in through a phone line or a cable connection I still wish a plague on your household and desire you are captured and tortured by a band of pillaging militant Pygmy Muslim terrorists.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Quote O' The Day
Aristotle Says...
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
We make war that we may live in peace.
Well begun is half done.
It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.
Aristotle,
RhetoricGreek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
We make war that we may live in peace.
Well begun is half done.
It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.
Aristotle,
RhetoricGreek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
My Debate Transcript
You Heard It Here First...
Obama: "er...ahh...tax cut...err...and...spread the wealth...ahhh....err"
McCain: "...My Friend..."
Obama: "er...ahh...Bill Ayers...er...English Professor...ah...err...tax cuts for 95%...ah...er...
McCain: "...drill...national security...foreign oil...my Friend..."
Obama: "er...seven hundred billion dollars...er...Ah...from China to send to Saudi Arabia...er...ah..."
McCain: "... Solar, wind, Biodiesel, Nucular, Coal, Cow farts...My Friend..."
Obama: "er...ahh...South Korea...er...free trade...er...working families...ah..."
McCain: "drill...capitol gains...corporate taxes...national security...My Friend..."
Obama: "tax cuts for 95%...er...ah...working families...er...families working...er...ah..."
Me: "THUNK" (the sound of me falling off the sofa after lapsing into a catatonic coma...)
Obama: "er...ahh...tax cut...err...and...spread the wealth...ahhh....err"
McCain: "...My Friend..."
Obama: "er...ahh...Bill Ayers...er...English Professor...ah...err...tax cuts for 95%...ah...er...
McCain: "...drill...national security...foreign oil...my Friend..."
Obama: "er...seven hundred billion dollars...er...Ah...from China to send to Saudi Arabia...er...ah..."
McCain: "... Solar, wind, Biodiesel, Nucular, Coal, Cow farts...My Friend..."
Obama: "er...ahh...South Korea...er...free trade...er...working families...ah..."
McCain: "drill...capitol gains...corporate taxes...national security...My Friend..."
Obama: "tax cuts for 95%...er...ah...working families...er...families working...er...ah..."
Me: "THUNK" (the sound of me falling off the sofa after lapsing into a catatonic coma...)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
In Anticipation Of The Last Presidential Debate
My Belly Button's Been Puckering & Unpuckering All Day Now...
"Global Warming" Induced Extinction Distinction
Oh Where...Oh Where Has My Little Owl Gore Gone...
Sorry folks, but there's more bad weather news out there this morning (IF you're a sniveling bed wetting Socialist Man Made Global Warming Greenie Weenie.)
Check out these stories from Drudge Report:
Coldest October 12th morning in Ukiah, California since records began being kept in 1893...
Pendleton, Oregon and other cities in the state break 100 plus year old records.
And don't tell the UN committee, but Alaskan glaciers added snow and ice during this past summer due to record cool temperatures after decades of shrinkage.
Of course there are still a few tropical noises rattling around down in the Caribbean and if you live in the lesser Antilles or Central America you better be paying close attention, but by and large the 2008 Hurricane season is over and even considering the two storms that hit Louisiana and Texas the season could be considered below average.
I can hardly wait for this winter here in Knoxville because I expect after a decade plus of mild winters this one will feature more snow and ice than have been seen in a while--just because I've moved here and own virtually ZERO winter clothes.
As a matter of fact, my feet are cold already...
Sorry folks, but there's more bad weather news out there this morning (IF you're a sniveling bed wetting Socialist Man Made Global Warming Greenie Weenie.)
Check out these stories from Drudge Report:
Coldest October 12th morning in Ukiah, California since records began being kept in 1893...
Pendleton, Oregon and other cities in the state break 100 plus year old records.
And don't tell the UN committee, but Alaskan glaciers added snow and ice during this past summer due to record cool temperatures after decades of shrinkage.
Of course there are still a few tropical noises rattling around down in the Caribbean and if you live in the lesser Antilles or Central America you better be paying close attention, but by and large the 2008 Hurricane season is over and even considering the two storms that hit Louisiana and Texas the season could be considered below average.
I can hardly wait for this winter here in Knoxville because I expect after a decade plus of mild winters this one will feature more snow and ice than have been seen in a while--just because I've moved here and own virtually ZERO winter clothes.
As a matter of fact, my feet are cold already...
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
One Funeral Away From Being The Oldest Male Alive
Honors I Don't Want Or Ask For...
It saddens me to report that my Branch of the Rogers Family lost another Son to eternity this evening.
This time it was my Father's Brother--my Uncle Thomas.
I got the call from my Cousin Tom II a little after nine PM and made the associated follow up calls spreading the word and spent a few moments making mental preparations in anticipation of a trip back to southern Ohio to the family cemetery.
In the middle of that process was when I realized something that stopped me cold in my tracks.
Can't be true...but it is...
The only thing between me and the position of being the oldest man in my entire sub-branch of the Rogers family tree is the continued fair health of my good old Uncle Darrell who can be found enjoying life in retirement in Northeast Florida at this moment.
Other than that...it's just ME--Virgil Raymond Rogers, III--oldest grandson vintage 1959.
Pawpaw's gone--a 1918 model who survived until 1979 (Grandma went to be with him a couple years ago after surviving since 1919.)
My own father passed on May 5th, 1996, and now with Uncle Tom's demise there's just Darrell and Tom II and yours truly left over (Darrell, like me is childless.)
This getting old stuff generally sucks, although it is said to be a right smart better than the alternative. I guess that's so..but still...
I'll just have to take their word on that, but any way my family specifically and America in general lost another great man this evening who had spent the past few years suffering from the effects of cancer and the treatments imposed upon him in the process.
Uncle Tom (the middle brother of the three) received a full scholarship and graduated from the General Motors Institute in the mid 1950's, did a short stint in the US Army, and spent much of his lifetime as a GM manager in the Detroit area.
He served in a purchasing capacity with the development of the GM motor home which was doomed by the oil embargo's and fuel shortages of the Nixon/Carter era of American diplomacy.
It saddens me to report that my Branch of the Rogers Family lost another Son to eternity this evening.
This time it was my Father's Brother--my Uncle Thomas.
I got the call from my Cousin Tom II a little after nine PM and made the associated follow up calls spreading the word and spent a few moments making mental preparations in anticipation of a trip back to southern Ohio to the family cemetery.
In the middle of that process was when I realized something that stopped me cold in my tracks.
Can't be true...but it is...
The only thing between me and the position of being the oldest man in my entire sub-branch of the Rogers family tree is the continued fair health of my good old Uncle Darrell who can be found enjoying life in retirement in Northeast Florida at this moment.
Other than that...it's just ME--Virgil Raymond Rogers, III--oldest grandson vintage 1959.
Pawpaw's gone--a 1918 model who survived until 1979 (Grandma went to be with him a couple years ago after surviving since 1919.)
My own father passed on May 5th, 1996, and now with Uncle Tom's demise there's just Darrell and Tom II and yours truly left over (Darrell, like me is childless.)
This getting old stuff generally sucks, although it is said to be a right smart better than the alternative. I guess that's so..but still...
I'll just have to take their word on that, but any way my family specifically and America in general lost another great man this evening who had spent the past few years suffering from the effects of cancer and the treatments imposed upon him in the process.
Uncle Tom (the middle brother of the three) received a full scholarship and graduated from the General Motors Institute in the mid 1950's, did a short stint in the US Army, and spent much of his lifetime as a GM manager in the Detroit area.
He served in a purchasing capacity with the development of the GM motor home which was doomed by the oil embargo's and fuel shortages of the Nixon/Carter era of American diplomacy.
By the time Volkswagen had shelved the old Beetle and started building new cars in the US, General Motors was doing a round of "down sizing" and Tom opted to do the unthinkable and leave his beloved company to work for the competition.
More recently he spent his golden years running a surplus equipment business and working in his capacity as a lay leader in the Detroit area Mormon Church.
I had hoped to see him again but things just progressed down hill quickly in the past week and it was not to be. I last saw him at his own mother's funeral and had only spoken on the telephone a few times since, although he did keep up with my ramblings and ravings by reading this blog on occasion.
When things like this occur I guess one should pause to consider one's life's priorities and daily realities, and I certainly am willing to redirect my excess energies and efforts toward the nooks and crannies of my existence when the opportunity arises.
Heck, given a few tanks of gas and a couple of weeks off, there's no telling who I could bother and what welcomes I could wear out except the truth be told I'll probably just sit here and work and worry and lament the passing of the next member of what we call "The Greatest Generation."
RIP Uncle Tom...
Am I Under The Weather?
Or Is The Weather Just On Top Of Me?
I've been slouching around since Wednesday suffering with the latest crap which was drug into my office by one of my co-worker "parents"--all of which are subjected daily to the infestations of viruses and other microbes found sneezing and snotting around public schools.
I guess that's one of the few disadvantages of coming back into civilization which I'm going to have to put up with.
It's October and I've already had a cold--after spending years cold free or at least making it to January living a Kleenex free existence
What kills me is that today it's OK to come to work with a fever of 101 and spread your infectious mucous throughout the air and smear it all over the handle of the community coffee pot, because you just dropped your sneezing kid off at school or put them on the bus to do the same to their peers (and their peers parents and their peers parents' office co-workers.)
Let's face it, we all have a regular "Typhoid Jane" mentality and insist on coming to work sick because (A) you need the pay, (B) you're already short on sick leave, (C) you can't or don't want to find a sitter or otherwise afford daycare for your kid(s) and finally (D) everyone else does it so why bother to consider the health of your workplace and community--what good can one person's efforts do?
So I slept like a rock in a coma most of yesterday and last night and basically got nothing done except resting, and so here it is at near six AM and I don't have a clue what's been going on in the world and I'm only just now pounding out something here on the blog.
I keep following the story of Obamarama's apparent lack of basic eligibility to run for president, and the plot just keeps getting thicker and thicker. Take a look at this video about a Philadelphia lawyer that's filed a lawsuit asking the Democrats and Obamamarama some basic questions which could be easily answered if Obamarama didn't want to follow John sKerry's lead and keep all his medical records and other personal documents from the public:
Time to go stagger around the basement doing a few things that need doing. When I have something else to say...you'll be the first to know.
I've been slouching around since Wednesday suffering with the latest crap which was drug into my office by one of my co-worker "parents"--all of which are subjected daily to the infestations of viruses and other microbes found sneezing and snotting around public schools.
I guess that's one of the few disadvantages of coming back into civilization which I'm going to have to put up with.
It's October and I've already had a cold--after spending years cold free or at least making it to January living a Kleenex free existence
What kills me is that today it's OK to come to work with a fever of 101 and spread your infectious mucous throughout the air and smear it all over the handle of the community coffee pot, because you just dropped your sneezing kid off at school or put them on the bus to do the same to their peers (and their peers parents and their peers parents' office co-workers.)
Let's face it, we all have a regular "Typhoid Jane" mentality and insist on coming to work sick because (A) you need the pay, (B) you're already short on sick leave, (C) you can't or don't want to find a sitter or otherwise afford daycare for your kid(s) and finally (D) everyone else does it so why bother to consider the health of your workplace and community--what good can one person's efforts do?
So I slept like a rock in a coma most of yesterday and last night and basically got nothing done except resting, and so here it is at near six AM and I don't have a clue what's been going on in the world and I'm only just now pounding out something here on the blog.
I keep following the story of Obamarama's apparent lack of basic eligibility to run for president, and the plot just keeps getting thicker and thicker. Take a look at this video about a Philadelphia lawyer that's filed a lawsuit asking the Democrats and Obamamarama some basic questions which could be easily answered if Obamarama didn't want to follow John sKerry's lead and keep all his medical records and other personal documents from the public:
Time to go stagger around the basement doing a few things that need doing. When I have something else to say...you'll be the first to know.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
2000 Essays
Little To Say...But I Thought I Should Mention The Milestone
I was fiddling around in my Blogger Dashboard last night and remembered that I was just a few postings short of 2000 since I first fired up this Blog on August 10th, 2004.
Doing the math, that's an average of 40 posts a month in 50 months of Blogging.
Not bad for a guy that hated English class and English teachers in high school...I guess.
So now that I've gotten number two thousand out of the way this morning I believe that I'll turn my attention to the kitchen and see if I can feed a hungry puppy and woman some eggs and bacon.
Y'all have a lovely weekend...If you will...
I was fiddling around in my Blogger Dashboard last night and remembered that I was just a few postings short of 2000 since I first fired up this Blog on August 10th, 2004.
Doing the math, that's an average of 40 posts a month in 50 months of Blogging.
Not bad for a guy that hated English class and English teachers in high school...I guess.
So now that I've gotten number two thousand out of the way this morning I believe that I'll turn my attention to the kitchen and see if I can feed a hungry puppy and woman some eggs and bacon.
Y'all have a lovely weekend...If you will...
Can't See The Forrest ACORN For The Trees
#%$#@#$%$"#@#$%$#@!????!!!!
This ACORN thing has been bugging the crap out of me for a couple of years now, but since it involves "disadvantaged" and "minority" and "community" and "working families" I knew that bitching about it here would pretty much be a waste of time.
I guess what kills me is the Democrats and their liberal Socialist "clinger oners" and 99.993% of the media just yawn and ignore the issue of rampant voter fraud aided and abetted by ACORN because after all is said and done...
THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS, and since 2000 even national Federal elections have been decided on razor thin margins and the media and the socialists know that a Wino vote here and a Felon's vote there (and there and there and there and there in multiple precincts) can and probably will be the deciding margin.
I just wish that they would pack up all of these so called "constituents" and deliver them to Nancy Pelosi and Obama's front lawn and sun room and make them live with them after the election.
A few weeks of cleaning up after them peeing on the toilet seat and putting out their cigarettes in the punch bowl would probably change their perspective, particularly if they were paying the beer tab and buying the stogies rather than taxing me and you for their habits and excesses.
This ACORN thing has been bugging the crap out of me for a couple of years now, but since it involves "disadvantaged" and "minority" and "community" and "working families" I knew that bitching about it here would pretty much be a waste of time.
I guess what kills me is the Democrats and their liberal Socialist "clinger oners" and 99.993% of the media just yawn and ignore the issue of rampant voter fraud aided and abetted by ACORN because after all is said and done...
THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS, and since 2000 even national Federal elections have been decided on razor thin margins and the media and the socialists know that a Wino vote here and a Felon's vote there (and there and there and there and there in multiple precincts) can and probably will be the deciding margin.
I just wish that they would pack up all of these so called "constituents" and deliver them to Nancy Pelosi and Obama's front lawn and sun room and make them live with them after the election.
A few weeks of cleaning up after them peeing on the toilet seat and putting out their cigarettes in the punch bowl would probably change their perspective, particularly if they were paying the beer tab and buying the stogies rather than taxing me and you for their habits and excesses.
Friday, October 10, 2008
US Dollar Soars
World Wide Dumbasses Panic...
You'll have to excuse me for sitting here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River smirking this morning.
I guess if you were in some way in my position you might be grinning too.
You see, at the ever greying, ever balding age one year short of a half Century, I've already had my spirit broken and my ass kicked both physically and financially, and as a direct result of those lessons and a little bit of luck and by the grace of God I feel today like I'm on the sidelines watching a really really bad football game being played in the financial equivalent of the "special Olympics."
Like a bad dream, I witness daily scenes where almost everyone but me appears to be handicapped when it comes to financial matters, and the government morons wearing the striped shirts and playing "officials" or "referees" have been drugged or blindfolded or otherwise selected from the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable or something resulting in the ineptitude with which I'm subjected.
I've said it before, and I guess that I'll have to say it again so let's try to get this straight...
There is no financial crisis if you and/or your company is financially sound. IF, however, you live on credit cards and borrow every dime you spend because you are living beyond your true means then I'm sorry to say that I agree that you're probably "UP SHIT CREEK" for the foreseeable future, but the good news is (and the moral of my story)...
THEY'RE NOT BURNING AMERICAN DOLLARS...
YET.
In fact, in spite of the current decline in stock prices AND, in spite of the current "credit crisis" or "mortgage meltdown" or whatever you call it, there are still houses out there to buy and sell, cars (particularly SUV's and Trucks) are being given away at cost, and the money in your bank account will generally buy more food and most anything else (including gasoline recently) and if you care to go shopping on Wall Street or in Europe or Asia the US dollar is stronger than EVER.
Dammit people, get a grip on yourpublic Government School educated selves.
Forget the news programs and newspaper headlines, try THINKING for yourself for five minutes and learn something from me in the process this morning.
FIRST, IF you're in the Stock Market, stand pat and hold your cards for now. IF the stupid government will manage to avoid getting any further into the banking business and leave free enterprise and the markets alone things will recover. It's closer to October 19, 1987 than it is to 1929 both on the calendar and in the dynamics of what is happening today.
SECOND, IF you aren't already leveraged up to your eyeballs and are under the age of forty, you should seriously consider buying into some Blue Chip Dividend paying companies like the Electric Utilities (Southern Company) or even the hated Oil company stocks (assuming that the frigging government stays out of their business and lets market forces continue to rule.)
THIRD, IF you are like me and are working from a CASH position with minimal debt and a slightly more sense than a horse or your family dog/cat, understand that with the US and World financial market's decline your money is STRONGER than ever, and you should fight tooth and nail the idea of allowing your Government to intervene and marginalize your efforts, discipline, and sound decision making.
I'm paying my mortgage on time.
I could have bought two or three times as much house as I bought last spring but I settled for "enough" house rather than a "trophy house" and as a result my mortgage payment is less than my rent payment was on our Little Island on the Georgia Coast.
I can pay my credit cards off every month so payments are not an issue.
I have investment property that represents a chunk of my normally liquid cash portion of my net worth and might not sell this winter, but it's still worth over half my mortgage payment in rent so I can convert it into either cash or cash flow regardless if the Government will stay out of my way.
The rest of our money is in CD's, a few mutual funds, and money market accounts and with the exception of the mutual funds every thing's yield is rising monthly.
The only thing that is going to further piss me off right now is you and the hoards of ignorant Democrats actually putting Obamarama into office and then like some mutant scene out of Young Frankenstein coming to my front door with torches and pitch forks and demanding a larger share of my "unfair bloated" Engineering income and raising my Capital Gains tax back up from it's current 15% level to match my income tax rate.
I'm truly sorry if you've followed the masses and lapsed into a Scholastically induced Coma, thereby sliding down the slippery slope in your pursuit of the "American Dream"--recently awakened to find yourself living in the "American Financial Whorehouse" with your wife/husband/kids/pets/Mother-in-law.
I'm also reluctant to put it like this, but...
NOT MY PROBLEM, AND CERTAINLY NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY.
Now get off your ass and get to work, and stop griping about everything YOU did to YOURSELF and get on with fixing things like I've done over the past ten years.
That will be all...for now...dammit...
APPENDIX:
In support of my assertion that the US Dollar is stronger that it has been in some time, check out these charts I Googled:
First there's my favorite chart, the US Greenback versus the Socialistic European Union's "Euro":
(for those of you that went to school at UGA or Mississippi State, that would represent a 15%+ increase in value since May of this year)
Here's the Dollar compared to the British Pound..
(once again...doing the fractions and dividing the numberator in denomination of Methodist, I get a near 15% increase since late in 2007...)
And not to discriminate against little far off Pacific Island Nations like Fiji:
Again...the Greenback's up over 15% since early this year when renting a beach chair or chartering a Scuba trip
Buying a Computer from Overseas...we're up over 7% recently against the currency of Taiwan:
Tired of having your customer support done on your computer or lawnmower from India?The good news is we're enjoying a similar advantage over the Rupee in the past 12 months:
For some screwy reason the comparison between the US Dollar and Chinese currency was unavailable on this Yahoo web site where I found the rest of this information.
You'll have to excuse me for sitting here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River smirking this morning.
I guess if you were in some way in my position you might be grinning too.
You see, at the ever greying, ever balding age one year short of a half Century, I've already had my spirit broken and my ass kicked both physically and financially, and as a direct result of those lessons and a little bit of luck and by the grace of God I feel today like I'm on the sidelines watching a really really bad football game being played in the financial equivalent of the "special Olympics."
Like a bad dream, I witness daily scenes where almost everyone but me appears to be handicapped when it comes to financial matters, and the government morons wearing the striped shirts and playing "officials" or "referees" have been drugged or blindfolded or otherwise selected from the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable or something resulting in the ineptitude with which I'm subjected.
I've said it before, and I guess that I'll have to say it again so let's try to get this straight...
There is no financial crisis if you and/or your company is financially sound. IF, however, you live on credit cards and borrow every dime you spend because you are living beyond your true means then I'm sorry to say that I agree that you're probably "UP SHIT CREEK" for the foreseeable future, but the good news is (and the moral of my story)...
THEY'RE NOT BURNING AMERICAN DOLLARS...
YET.
In fact, in spite of the current decline in stock prices AND, in spite of the current "credit crisis" or "mortgage meltdown" or whatever you call it, there are still houses out there to buy and sell, cars (particularly SUV's and Trucks) are being given away at cost, and the money in your bank account will generally buy more food and most anything else (including gasoline recently) and if you care to go shopping on Wall Street or in Europe or Asia the US dollar is stronger than EVER.
Dammit people, get a grip on your
Forget the news programs and newspaper headlines, try THINKING for yourself for five minutes and learn something from me in the process this morning.
FIRST, IF you're in the Stock Market, stand pat and hold your cards for now. IF the stupid government will manage to avoid getting any further into the banking business and leave free enterprise and the markets alone things will recover. It's closer to October 19, 1987 than it is to 1929 both on the calendar and in the dynamics of what is happening today.
SECOND, IF you aren't already leveraged up to your eyeballs and are under the age of forty, you should seriously consider buying into some Blue Chip Dividend paying companies like the Electric Utilities (Southern Company) or even the hated Oil company stocks (assuming that the frigging government stays out of their business and lets market forces continue to rule.)
THIRD, IF you are like me and are working from a CASH position with minimal debt and a slightly more sense than a horse or your family dog/cat, understand that with the US and World financial market's decline your money is STRONGER than ever, and you should fight tooth and nail the idea of allowing your Government to intervene and marginalize your efforts, discipline, and sound decision making.
I'm paying my mortgage on time.
I could have bought two or three times as much house as I bought last spring but I settled for "enough" house rather than a "trophy house" and as a result my mortgage payment is less than my rent payment was on our Little Island on the Georgia Coast.
I can pay my credit cards off every month so payments are not an issue.
I have investment property that represents a chunk of my normally liquid cash portion of my net worth and might not sell this winter, but it's still worth over half my mortgage payment in rent so I can convert it into either cash or cash flow regardless if the Government will stay out of my way.
The rest of our money is in CD's, a few mutual funds, and money market accounts and with the exception of the mutual funds every thing's yield is rising monthly.
The only thing that is going to further piss me off right now is you and the hoards of ignorant Democrats actually putting Obamarama into office and then like some mutant scene out of Young Frankenstein coming to my front door with torches and pitch forks and demanding a larger share of my "unfair bloated" Engineering income and raising my Capital Gains tax back up from it's current 15% level to match my income tax rate.
I'm truly sorry if you've followed the masses and lapsed into a Scholastically induced Coma, thereby sliding down the slippery slope in your pursuit of the "American Dream"--recently awakened to find yourself living in the "American Financial Whorehouse" with your wife/husband/kids/pets/Mother-in-law.
I'm also reluctant to put it like this, but...
NOT MY PROBLEM, AND CERTAINLY NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY.
Now get off your ass and get to work, and stop griping about everything YOU did to YOURSELF and get on with fixing things like I've done over the past ten years.
That will be all...for now...dammit...
APPENDIX:
In support of my assertion that the US Dollar is stronger that it has been in some time, check out these charts I Googled:
First there's my favorite chart, the US Greenback versus the Socialistic European Union's "Euro":
(for those of you that went to school at UGA or Mississippi State, that would represent a 15%+ increase in value since May of this year)
Here's the Dollar compared to the British Pound..
(once again...doing the fractions and dividing the numberator in denomination of Methodist, I get a near 15% increase since late in 2007...)
And not to discriminate against little far off Pacific Island Nations like Fiji:
Again...the Greenback's up over 15% since early this year when renting a beach chair or chartering a Scuba trip
Buying a Computer from Overseas...we're up over 7% recently against the currency of Taiwan:
Tired of having your customer support done on your computer or lawnmower from India?The good news is we're enjoying a similar advantage over the Rupee in the past 12 months:
For some screwy reason the comparison between the US Dollar and Chinese currency was unavailable on this Yahoo web site where I found the rest of this information.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
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...
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...
When Even The Law Becomes Lawless
Only The Lawless Will Make The Laws...
Whir Whirrr WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr AhhhhhAAAAAAHHHHHH
(That's the sound of me screaming as my ever greying, ever balding head breaks the sound barrier coming up to orbital rotational velocity this evening. )
The offending issue once again has it's origin in the "housing crisis," but this time with a twist--with local government officials--the Sheriff of all people--discovering that RENTERS have newly found "Rights" in Obamarama's beloved Chicago suburbs in Cook County, Illinois:
CHICAGO (AP) - Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of Cook County don't have to worry about deputies forcing them out. Sheriff Tom Dart says that starting Thursday his office won't take part in evictions.
Dart says he's concerned that many of the people being evicted are renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay their mortgages. He says his deputies have no way of knowing whether they're removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has been faithfully paying rent.
Dart says he thinks he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
Dart says the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cook County has skyrocketed and will probably keep rising.
So isn't that special?
This guy in the suit on the right in the photo (and apparently on the left in real life):
...Tom Dart, the Cook County Sheriff, has taken it upon himself to ignore his oath of office and do what?
Whir Whirrr WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr AhhhhhAAAAAAHHHHHH
(That's the sound of me screaming as my ever greying, ever balding head breaks the sound barrier coming up to orbital rotational velocity this evening. )
The offending issue once again has it's origin in the "housing crisis," but this time with a twist--with local government officials--the Sheriff of all people--discovering that RENTERS have newly found "Rights" in Obamarama's beloved Chicago suburbs in Cook County, Illinois:
CHICAGO (AP) - Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of Cook County don't have to worry about deputies forcing them out. Sheriff Tom Dart says that starting Thursday his office won't take part in evictions.
Dart says he's concerned that many of the people being evicted are renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay their mortgages. He says his deputies have no way of knowing whether they're removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has been faithfully paying rent.
Dart says he thinks he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
Dart says the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cook County has skyrocketed and will probably keep rising.
So isn't that special?
This guy in the suit on the right in the photo (and apparently on the left in real life):
...Tom Dart, the Cook County Sheriff, has taken it upon himself to ignore his oath of office and do what?
Leave the banks and other legal private owners of property with no recourse but to allow the present occupants to stay in property they may or may not own because current Democratic policy and public sentiment holds that people--deadbeats and honest citizens alike--have a RIGHT to a free place to stay?
I've always heard that possession is nine tenths of the law, but give me a break here...
PlueEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!
I'd like to ask the honorable Sheriff Dart a question this morning if I could.
What planet are you from am I and other honest hard working tax paying government and God fearing investors supposed to do in light of your socialist interpretation of the law when you refuse to enforce a legal eviction notice which cost me and my fellow property owners time and money to obtain from the court system?
After all, it's not your responsibility to "have a way of knowing" who didn't pay whom in this process, you get a court order, it's your SWORN DUTY to uphold the due process.
What's next, deciding to not knock down doors and enforce arrest warrants because you don't believe that people should be jailed for child abuse or beating their wives, or suddenly having a few joints in your back pocket isn't grounds for going back to jail on a probation violation?
See where this nation is headed Ladies and Gentlemen?
What was once was a nation of LAWS written in an orderly fashion by knowledgeable ethical men and based on a nearly 250 year old document which at the time of it's inception was considered to have addressed most of even the current problems we're encountering today, is disintegrating before our eyes into a morass of populist whores and weasels that attain public office using lies and deceptions and then take it upon themselves to test the waters and the winds and act accordingly.
I'm afraid that the day is not far off when being an ever greying, ever balding curmudgeon that elects to spend my golden years farting and belching and blogging will be a capitol offence.
Until then, enter here on this part of the Internet at your own risk because, like a skunk or a smelly Bwarney Frank Liberal Socialist Democrat, I'm liable to emit noxious gases in random directions without filing an EPA notice, and I'll gladly take credit for the aroma instead of denying it's existence...
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Didn't Someone Say "Shit Flows Downhill?"
Not To Worry...Somehow Government Will Always Manage To Stir It Back Up To The Surface...
Anyone care to guess who's going to be in charge of spending your/our "$700 billion" worth of rescue money?
(cue the sounds of the crickets chirping...)
I'm waiting...
Hang on to your hat and your teeth and take a look at this story with the headline "Paulson taps former Goldman Sachs executive to run $700 billion rescue program."
WASHINGTON - The administration has selected a former Goldman Sachs executive to be the interim head of its $700 billion rescue effort for financial institutions.Neel Kashkari, the Treasury's assistant secretary for international affairs, was selected Monday to be the interim head of Treasury's new Office of Financial Stability.
The designation was made by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was the head of Goldman Sachs before he joined the Bush administration in 2006. Kashkari, 35, will head the office created by the emergency legislation enacted Friday to fund the largest government bailout in history.
Here's the US Department of The Treasury website's bio on Mr. Kashkari.
And here's the Wikipedia write up on the new "financial crisis tsar."
Either we're going to end up loving this guy or hating him, but having a couple of engineering degrees from University of Chicago Campaign AND an MBA doesn't remove him from my scrutiny and suspicion since he worked both for Goldman Sachs and our government.
Knowing the government and having a few run ins resulting in losses on Wall street, my money is on him keeping the status quo and screwing everything up in the process of keeping the politicians and special interests happy.
Is it just me?
UPDATE (6:42 AM) I almost forgot my original point...WHY NOT HIRE SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE RUNNING ONE OF THE MANY BANKS OR INVESTMENT HOUSES THAT ISN'T GOING DOWN THE CRAPPER TO DO THIS JOB RATHER THAN GETTING SOME GUY THAT HAS SLITHERED INTO A CUSHY GOVERNMENT JOB FROM ONE OF THE FAILED COMPANY'S BEGGING FOR TAXPAYER HANDOUTS?
Well...I'm waiting for my answer...
Yeah...I thought so...no wonder Republicans are going to hand this election on a brass platter to Obamarama and his fellow socialists next month
Anyone care to guess who's going to be in charge of spending your/our "$700 billion" worth of rescue money?
(cue the sounds of the crickets chirping...)
I'm waiting...
Hang on to your hat and your teeth and take a look at this story with the headline "Paulson taps former Goldman Sachs executive to run $700 billion rescue program."
WASHINGTON - The administration has selected a former Goldman Sachs executive to be the interim head of its $700 billion rescue effort for financial institutions.Neel Kashkari, the Treasury's assistant secretary for international affairs, was selected Monday to be the interim head of Treasury's new Office of Financial Stability.
The designation was made by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was the head of Goldman Sachs before he joined the Bush administration in 2006. Kashkari, 35, will head the office created by the emergency legislation enacted Friday to fund the largest government bailout in history.
Here's the US Department of The Treasury website's bio on Mr. Kashkari.
And here's the Wikipedia write up on the new "financial crisis tsar."
Either we're going to end up loving this guy or hating him, but having a couple of engineering degrees from University of Chicago Campaign AND an MBA doesn't remove him from my scrutiny and suspicion since he worked both for Goldman Sachs and our government.
Knowing the government and having a few run ins resulting in losses on Wall street, my money is on him keeping the status quo and screwing everything up in the process of keeping the politicians and special interests happy.
Is it just me?
UPDATE (6:42 AM) I almost forgot my original point...WHY NOT HIRE SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE RUNNING ONE OF THE MANY BANKS OR INVESTMENT HOUSES THAT ISN'T GOING DOWN THE CRAPPER TO DO THIS JOB RATHER THAN GETTING SOME GUY THAT HAS SLITHERED INTO A CUSHY GOVERNMENT JOB FROM ONE OF THE FAILED COMPANY'S BEGGING FOR TAXPAYER HANDOUTS?
Well...I'm waiting for my answer...
Yeah...I thought so...no wonder Republicans are going to hand this election on a brass platter to Obamarama and his fellow socialists next month
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
CNN "Staying Out Of The Spin Cycle Room?"
Anderson Cooper Still Full Of Crap...
CNN is so pitiful.
I staggered over there after lapsing into a Coma watching Tom Brokenjaw preside over the official lobbing of the Softballs at Obama AND McCain on FOX News.
Anderson Cooper was speaking over video of the goings on in some sort of area in the arena in Nashville referred to as "the Spin Zone" and the arrogant asshole had the gumption to say that CNN would not be going there this evening.
I'm not sorry to disagree in saying that anyone with any molecule of a brain and some horse sense knows that virtually everything coming out of every single minute of a CNN broadcast is spin...carefully calculated to promote their socialistic liberal media agenda.
Nice try Comrade Cooper, but as we say down here in Alabama, Georgia, and now on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River...
That Dog Won't Hunt...
You idiot lying partisan bastard...(did I mention that opinion already?)
CNN is so pitiful.
I staggered over there after lapsing into a Coma watching Tom Brokenjaw preside over the official lobbing of the Softballs at Obama AND McCain on FOX News.
Anderson Cooper was speaking over video of the goings on in some sort of area in the arena in Nashville referred to as "the Spin Zone" and the arrogant asshole had the gumption to say that CNN would not be going there this evening.
I'm not sorry to disagree in saying that anyone with any molecule of a brain and some horse sense knows that virtually everything coming out of every single minute of a CNN broadcast is spin...carefully calculated to promote their socialistic liberal media agenda.
Nice try Comrade Cooper, but as we say down here in Alabama, Georgia, and now on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River...
That Dog Won't Hunt...
You idiot lying partisan bastard...(did I mention that opinion already?)
New Printer
Just In Time To Blog Tonight's Debate...
(That would be a Remington "Noiseless" Portable in beautiful working condition circa about 1938...so now I'm officially an E-Bay Addict...sue me...)
(That would be a Remington "Noiseless" Portable in beautiful working condition circa about 1938...so now I'm officially an E-Bay Addict...sue me...)
The Plot Thickens
Bwaney...Bwaney...You So Silly...
In my mind the debate is over with this morning as I read news containing stuff like this:
Frank waited until he was "47 years and 3 months old" to come out of the closet. By that time, he says, "I was pretty sure that if I came out I would not lose my job in Congress. I thought it would diminish my influence in Congress. It did not." His base in suburban Boston, in fact, is so safe that he hasn't had to make a campaign commercial for TV in 16 years.
He thinks the average American is "less homophobic than he thinks he's supposed to be and more racist than he's willing to admit."
I could actually care less about the homosexual out-of-the closet part of the story.
What bothers the hell out of me is the fact that Brawney Frank has now been proven to be a %$#@& partisan, lying, useless bastard, and the people of Massachusetts really need to get a grip on themselves and take a look in the mirror in order to see the creeping effects of the cancer which is eating up their brains and causing them to elect the likes of Frank, Kerry, and Kennedy to national office for the pastthousand years thirty plus years.
Must be something in the water up there...
Anyone have any idea how long I would last if I moved to Boston?
I'd be killed in the hotel bar for opening my Redneck Mouth before I could even attend the closing on my loan for my new used single wide trailer in "Back Bay."
This latest "anti-Brawney" rant is induced by the revelation that Representative Frank "dated" a man named Herb Moses from 1987 until 1998 when Moses left of all places--his seven year tenure at Fannie Mae.
Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.
"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."
(snip)...
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "
But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."
I have to go now and ice down my head before it explodes...
In my mind the debate is over with this morning as I read news containing stuff like this:
Frank waited until he was "47 years and 3 months old" to come out of the closet. By that time, he says, "I was pretty sure that if I came out I would not lose my job in Congress. I thought it would diminish my influence in Congress. It did not." His base in suburban Boston, in fact, is so safe that he hasn't had to make a campaign commercial for TV in 16 years.
He thinks the average American is "less homophobic than he thinks he's supposed to be and more racist than he's willing to admit."
I could actually care less about the homosexual out-of-the closet part of the story.
What bothers the hell out of me is the fact that Brawney Frank has now been proven to be a %$#@& partisan, lying, useless bastard, and the people of Massachusetts really need to get a grip on themselves and take a look in the mirror in order to see the creeping effects of the cancer which is eating up their brains and causing them to elect the likes of Frank, Kerry, and Kennedy to national office for the past
Must be something in the water up there...
Anyone have any idea how long I would last if I moved to Boston?
I'd be killed in the hotel bar for opening my Redneck Mouth before I could even attend the closing on my loan for my new used single wide trailer in "Back Bay."
This latest "anti-Brawney" rant is induced by the revelation that Representative Frank "dated" a man named Herb Moses from 1987 until 1998 when Moses left of all places--his seven year tenure at Fannie Mae.
Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.
"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."
(snip)...
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "
But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."
I have to go now and ice down my head before it explodes...
