Congratulations to Mr. Manchester and his lovely bride of 19 years!
Everyone join me in wishing them a delightful and joyous wedding anniversary. May you have many more to come, and may each new year together bring you peace and contentment.
Oh, and failing that....year 19 brings you an anniversary gift of bronze.
I suppose that is better than year one, which is....paper, or year seven, which is wool.
20080930
I don't like China, but they have this nifty concept called "The Execution Bus" and when you've been a very naughty boy indeed, the bus rolls up to your corporation's front door, and you are expected to step inside, and you leave in a body bag. China uses it to get rid of corporations who do things like, oh, kill babies by selling tainted milk, or dog food, or toys with lead, or other immoral and irresponsible acts brought about by greed and profit chasing.
I can see The Execution Bus rolling down Wall Street now.....
I can see The Execution Bus rolling down Wall Street now.....
Reverse Jumping the Shark?
Sarah Palin has managed to achieve what many people have claimed was impossible:
She's made "Saturday Night Live" relevant again.
She's made "Saturday Night Live" relevant again.
20080929
Here's the thing, see....
It's not like the Depression. Household savings and checking accounts aren't the things at stake. No, the Depression and the Great Crash netted us the FDIC - which means your money at the bank is insured against runs and catastrophic losses. Insured. Yeah, you read that right.
So what the government is saying is that this Wall Street Bailout, this one that failed, is basically a reward for investors who gambled with other people's money (to reduce the risk of loss to themselves) and when they lost money and walked off, someone was left holding the bag, and it was about to be you and me. We were about to be asked to "insure" an industry that had no right to be in the first place, an industry that was created and allowed fortunes to be made by trading on risk like a commodity.
Ah yes...what are those famous words?
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
I can't wait to get out of debt.
It's not like the Depression. Household savings and checking accounts aren't the things at stake. No, the Depression and the Great Crash netted us the FDIC - which means your money at the bank is insured against runs and catastrophic losses. Insured. Yeah, you read that right.
So what the government is saying is that this Wall Street Bailout, this one that failed, is basically a reward for investors who gambled with other people's money (to reduce the risk of loss to themselves) and when they lost money and walked off, someone was left holding the bag, and it was about to be you and me. We were about to be asked to "insure" an industry that had no right to be in the first place, an industry that was created and allowed fortunes to be made by trading on risk like a commodity.
Ah yes...what are those famous words?
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
I can't wait to get out of debt.
20080926
The weekend is upon us yet again. As those of you who know me well know, Friday's find me grumpy and tired. This week it seems especially so - I'd gotten my hopes up that the repairman would be able to fix the washer (we broke down and scheduled an appointment) with a wave of his repairman ratchettype wand on the spot.
Of course, it was not to be. It would be another $247 and another week. I decided it wasn't worth it.
And adding further to the crankiness further is the ache in my back. I don't know what I've done, but I've an ache in my back that won't stop. Unless I'm asleep. And since I can't seem to sleep more than six hours a night, and certainly none uninterrupted, I've given up on that as well.
I can't think any further about the economy (although the conspiracy theorist in me notes that some of the players in the news this week were previously rumored to be potential suitors for my employer, and the accidental nature of our sale yanking release to the press was timed a bit oddly in light of what occurred otherwise, yesterday). My head just might explode.
Lol - now do you believe me? I am always grumpy and tired on Friday.
Of course, it was not to be. It would be another $247 and another week. I decided it wasn't worth it.
And adding further to the crankiness further is the ache in my back. I don't know what I've done, but I've an ache in my back that won't stop. Unless I'm asleep. And since I can't seem to sleep more than six hours a night, and certainly none uninterrupted, I've given up on that as well.
I can't think any further about the economy (although the conspiracy theorist in me notes that some of the players in the news this week were previously rumored to be potential suitors for my employer, and the accidental nature of our sale yanking release to the press was timed a bit oddly in light of what occurred otherwise, yesterday). My head just might explode.
Lol - now do you believe me? I am always grumpy and tired on Friday.
20080925
Let me get this straight:
Federal Regulators tonight, while you and I were eating dinner, seized control of Washington Mutual and sold it at bargain basement prices to JP Morgan Chase.
Are you people not aghast at this? The government just swooped in and seized a bank.
Is that even lawful? I am appalled.
Doesn't anyone see what unprecedented power the treasury has just granted itself????
Federal Regulators tonight, while you and I were eating dinner, seized control of Washington Mutual and sold it at bargain basement prices to JP Morgan Chase.
Are you people not aghast at this? The government just swooped in and seized a bank.
Is that even lawful? I am appalled.
Doesn't anyone see what unprecedented power the treasury has just granted itself????
20080924
20080923
"[Some] seem to think that [civilization's] advance has brought on too complicated a state of society, and that we should gain in happiness by treading back our steps a little way. I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it." --Thomas Jefferson to William Ludlow, 1824. ME 16:75
Yes...too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Too many CEO's with multi million dollar salaries sitting pretty while you and I and Bob and Sue and Leroy and Lelanie and Miguel and Chen, and Chen's granddaughter, and her daughter's daughter will all be paying for the mistakes and gross incompetence of the parasites (living off the labor of Chen, and you, and me).
For what little it's worth, I think Jefferson would be appalled at the...incest that happens regularly between the captains of industry (perhaps better re-monikered the captains of investment or rats of the sinking ship) and the government. I've been reading extensively on this subject, and it seems that everyone and god thinks that the bailouts are "the right thing to do".
WRONG
The right thing to do is: jail, baby, for all those CEO's, and restitution to the company and to the people they essentially defrauded. The right thing to do is to stop letting the BANKS set their own policies. The BANKS got themselves into this mess in the first place, so it's only right that they take a hit as well. Do I really care that the bank holds a note that says your house is work $200K when it is really only worth $150K? No, I don't, but the bank does. The bank isn't going to, even if you are facing foreclosure, or bankruptcy, adjust the amount of your loan to reflect market value. The bank is going to hold your feet to the fire as long as possible, and hope they can nickle and dime you to death before you walk into their local branch and fling your house keys at the brand manager's head. If Congress were honorable, they would have insisted that the banks downwardly adjust the principal in true hardship cases. But we know they aren't, and they like their little kick backs and "after I retire from Congress" board positions, and vacations, and all those little PAC monies that they aren't allowed to have.
So Wall Street, and our continued lack of common sense regulation in existing and emerging markets, has led us down the garden path into a recession/depression. Retailers are already moaning about the poor holiday season. Boofreakinghoo. Cry me a river. Produce something someone wants, or lower your prices, or STFU. Imaginary hype isn't going to get it.
I'll be glad when reality re-intrudes and we all come down off this high we've been on. Perpetual growth...ya know...
Yes...too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Too many CEO's with multi million dollar salaries sitting pretty while you and I and Bob and Sue and Leroy and Lelanie and Miguel and Chen, and Chen's granddaughter, and her daughter's daughter will all be paying for the mistakes and gross incompetence of the parasites (living off the labor of Chen, and you, and me).
For what little it's worth, I think Jefferson would be appalled at the...incest that happens regularly between the captains of industry (perhaps better re-monikered the captains of investment or rats of the sinking ship) and the government. I've been reading extensively on this subject, and it seems that everyone and god thinks that the bailouts are "the right thing to do".
WRONG
The right thing to do is: jail, baby, for all those CEO's, and restitution to the company and to the people they essentially defrauded. The right thing to do is to stop letting the BANKS set their own policies. The BANKS got themselves into this mess in the first place, so it's only right that they take a hit as well. Do I really care that the bank holds a note that says your house is work $200K when it is really only worth $150K? No, I don't, but the bank does. The bank isn't going to, even if you are facing foreclosure, or bankruptcy, adjust the amount of your loan to reflect market value. The bank is going to hold your feet to the fire as long as possible, and hope they can nickle and dime you to death before you walk into their local branch and fling your house keys at the brand manager's head. If Congress were honorable, they would have insisted that the banks downwardly adjust the principal in true hardship cases. But we know they aren't, and they like their little kick backs and "after I retire from Congress" board positions, and vacations, and all those little PAC monies that they aren't allowed to have.
So Wall Street, and our continued lack of common sense regulation in existing and emerging markets, has led us down the garden path into a recession/depression. Retailers are already moaning about the poor holiday season. Boofreakinghoo. Cry me a river. Produce something someone wants, or lower your prices, or STFU. Imaginary hype isn't going to get it.
I'll be glad when reality re-intrudes and we all come down off this high we've been on. Perpetual growth...ya know...
This is Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, dated March 4, 1801 when the land was leaving it's colonial days behind and becoming a country. His words remind me of how we have failed (I have restrained myself from highlighting the important bits; you can find those yourself):
"Friends and Fellow Citizens:
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye -- when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. "
"Friends and Fellow Citizens:
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye -- when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. "
You Must Buy This Now (The Culture of Want)
Once upon a time, you were content to listen to music on the radio. When you went for a walk, you were content to listen to the birds and enjoy nature. When you got in your car, if you had a radio, you were happy to have whatever was on. A Saturday night might find the family listening to a radio program while eating dinner and cleaning up.
Wouldn't it be cool, though, if you could listen to just the music YOU like and not the music everyone else likes? Dig it, daddy 0. No one would talk to you either, and if you like you can play it over and over again until you are quite sick of it. Ah, the popularity of the record player just grew and grew until everyone had one. And then everyone had the stereo - you know, a record player, a tape deck (or 8track), and a radio in one unit. So you could...tape things and play them back later. Impossible! Astounding! Amazing!
Suddenly that silence on your walk doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore. Wouldn't you walk faster if you had your own tunes to walk to? Maybe something with a good beat, or a catchy chorus, something thumpy for your evening run. Oh! You can make a mix tape for that little Walkman you got for Christmas! Just the thing!
Now technology has made your records obsolete. Their replacement, the compact disc, also obsolete in favor of digital music (the music industry might protest, but the death knell for their existing business model tolled way back when the real Napster first made it's debut). Now we have phones, and satellite music, and ipods, and burners, and can make our own music if you like.
And all along, we got sweet talked into buying all this stuff that we never really needed. You didn't need a record player; someone made you think that you wanted one. You didn't need a walkman; someone made you think that you wanted one.
Isn't that a summary of our contemporary culture? We spend ourselves into debt buying things we do not need and yet oddly feel that we want. It is the same phenomenom that leaves you disappointed when you hit that big sale at Macy's only to leave empty handed.
Sometimes there are just times when you realize there is nothing worth spending your hard earned money on.
Wouldn't it be cool, though, if you could listen to just the music YOU like and not the music everyone else likes? Dig it, daddy 0. No one would talk to you either, and if you like you can play it over and over again until you are quite sick of it. Ah, the popularity of the record player just grew and grew until everyone had one. And then everyone had the stereo - you know, a record player, a tape deck (or 8track), and a radio in one unit. So you could...tape things and play them back later. Impossible! Astounding! Amazing!
Suddenly that silence on your walk doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore. Wouldn't you walk faster if you had your own tunes to walk to? Maybe something with a good beat, or a catchy chorus, something thumpy for your evening run. Oh! You can make a mix tape for that little Walkman you got for Christmas! Just the thing!
Now technology has made your records obsolete. Their replacement, the compact disc, also obsolete in favor of digital music (the music industry might protest, but the death knell for their existing business model tolled way back when the real Napster first made it's debut). Now we have phones, and satellite music, and ipods, and burners, and can make our own music if you like.
And all along, we got sweet talked into buying all this stuff that we never really needed. You didn't need a record player; someone made you think that you wanted one. You didn't need a walkman; someone made you think that you wanted one.
Isn't that a summary of our contemporary culture? We spend ourselves into debt buying things we do not need and yet oddly feel that we want. It is the same phenomenom that leaves you disappointed when you hit that big sale at Macy's only to leave empty handed.
Sometimes there are just times when you realize there is nothing worth spending your hard earned money on.
Those of us who reside here accept that the South is a peculiar place. After all, we live on southern soil, and breathe southern air, and grow up steeped in all parts (good and bad) of southern culture (skids or otherwise!)
It must be said, however, that we do like to come up with odd nicknames for our husbands, our wives, our partners, our children, our pets.
For instance: Madeline Anne is frequently called MaddyGail, hairball, fishbreath, Maddylena, Maddycakes, etc. Zoe is Harriett Houdini, or tater, or cutie pie or just plain momma's baby :-)
Back to people, where else in the world is referring to someone as “butterball” an endearment?
And we do have a WIDE variety of food related nicknames: muffin, sugar (and it’s kissing cousin, sugar-pie), dumpling, pumpkin, butternut squash, peapod, peanut, honey, apple of my eye, etc. followed by your classics: sweetheart, baby, sweetie, darling, babygirl, etc. You also one remaining category of slang that influences our nickname vocabulary, with one honorable mention: boo.
My personal favorite? Grandmother’s “sugarfoot” . That’s the ultimate expression of grandmotherly love…being called sugarfoot.
I guess that’s just a southern thing.
It must be said, however, that we do like to come up with odd nicknames for our husbands, our wives, our partners, our children, our pets.
For instance: Madeline Anne is frequently called MaddyGail, hairball, fishbreath, Maddylena, Maddycakes, etc. Zoe is Harriett Houdini, or tater, or cutie pie or just plain momma's baby :-)
Back to people, where else in the world is referring to someone as “butterball” an endearment?
And we do have a WIDE variety of food related nicknames: muffin, sugar (and it’s kissing cousin, sugar-pie), dumpling, pumpkin, butternut squash, peapod, peanut, honey, apple of my eye, etc. followed by your classics: sweetheart, baby, sweetie, darling, babygirl, etc. You also one remaining category of slang that influences our nickname vocabulary, with one honorable mention: boo.
My personal favorite? Grandmother’s “sugarfoot” . That’s the ultimate expression of grandmotherly love…being called sugarfoot.
I guess that’s just a southern thing.
What did mankind do without the invention of dental services? Did our naked ancestors stroll around the plains looking for handy herbs with which to scrub their teeth? Did someone chomp on a piece of mint and voila mouthwash was born?
Yesterday I had two fillings replaced. Part of me thinks this is a racket, like every dentist's desire to removal all wisdom teeth, and straighten every tooth in your mouth. Even as an adult, every time I go to a new dentist, they all try to upsell me on braces. Braces are a form of extreme discipline and reduce any likelihood of having a normal teenage-hood to somewhere between nil and zero. Coupled with pink glasses, long stringy hair, and clothes acquired from wherever...
You get the point: I'm never getting braces again. I'd like veneers, though. The BallChicks at the Braves game all had them, and I thought they looked nice. Those and the fake racks.
As usual, the office is running late. It's a weird office - a de-converted Macaroni Grill (or something italian-ish like that) - run by weird people but almost entirely female, which is a change.
First, the impressions for the mouthguard. I am a jaw clencher and a teeth grinder of a the first order, so this is a necessity, although an expensive one. The first mould was too big to even fit in my mouth, and my little dental hygenist (from Bulgaria, I asked, and not so little) had to go get the children's plate for little ole moi! That shit is gross, let me tell ya, and you have to have three impressions made to make sure it's right.
As they are gassing me up, and giving me the numbing gel, the dentist strolls in, pops the mask off my face and says "Girl, are you high yet?" and starts laughing like a madwoman. So does the hygenist from Bulgaria, who starts in on crazy patients on gas stories, like the woman who hallucinated a bear, or the patient who passed out in the chair, and then we went into office gossip, and patient gossip, and I was rather entertained as I had two fillings drilled out and replaced (the smell, oh my god, the smell of your teeth being drilled out of your head is really rather revolting. When did my nose get so sensitive?)
Leaving the office is not such a good experience. I look like Billy Idol - I'm afraid I'm going to drool, so I have this perpetual sneer. Driving back to the office to pick up Mr. Manners, the whole world has gone plumb crazy and tilted the wrong way on it's axis because people are LINING UP TO GET GAS like complete idiots. And it's messing up my driving pattern, people, so get the hell out of the way. And yes, there is only one gas station on the whole of Mansell Road with gas, and it's the Racetrac, the one that you can't get into from the main road...yeah, the one with shitty frontage.
The whole no gas thing still entertains me. Why is there no gas? Because people are idiots. Do folks really think that the oil you put in your car comes only from Texas?
Oh yeah, right....I forget I live in a country where some of the top selling publications are USA Today and Time Magazine (NewsForThirdGraders, and NewsForDummies, respectively).
Yesterday I had two fillings replaced. Part of me thinks this is a racket, like every dentist's desire to removal all wisdom teeth, and straighten every tooth in your mouth. Even as an adult, every time I go to a new dentist, they all try to upsell me on braces. Braces are a form of extreme discipline and reduce any likelihood of having a normal teenage-hood to somewhere between nil and zero. Coupled with pink glasses, long stringy hair, and clothes acquired from wherever...
You get the point: I'm never getting braces again. I'd like veneers, though. The BallChicks at the Braves game all had them, and I thought they looked nice. Those and the fake racks.
As usual, the office is running late. It's a weird office - a de-converted Macaroni Grill (or something italian-ish like that) - run by weird people but almost entirely female, which is a change.
First, the impressions for the mouthguard. I am a jaw clencher and a teeth grinder of a the first order, so this is a necessity, although an expensive one. The first mould was too big to even fit in my mouth, and my little dental hygenist (from Bulgaria, I asked, and not so little) had to go get the children's plate for little ole moi! That shit is gross, let me tell ya, and you have to have three impressions made to make sure it's right.
As they are gassing me up, and giving me the numbing gel, the dentist strolls in, pops the mask off my face and says "Girl, are you high yet?" and starts laughing like a madwoman. So does the hygenist from Bulgaria, who starts in on crazy patients on gas stories, like the woman who hallucinated a bear, or the patient who passed out in the chair, and then we went into office gossip, and patient gossip, and I was rather entertained as I had two fillings drilled out and replaced (the smell, oh my god, the smell of your teeth being drilled out of your head is really rather revolting. When did my nose get so sensitive?)
Leaving the office is not such a good experience. I look like Billy Idol - I'm afraid I'm going to drool, so I have this perpetual sneer. Driving back to the office to pick up Mr. Manners, the whole world has gone plumb crazy and tilted the wrong way on it's axis because people are LINING UP TO GET GAS like complete idiots. And it's messing up my driving pattern, people, so get the hell out of the way. And yes, there is only one gas station on the whole of Mansell Road with gas, and it's the Racetrac, the one that you can't get into from the main road...yeah, the one with shitty frontage.
The whole no gas thing still entertains me. Why is there no gas? Because people are idiots. Do folks really think that the oil you put in your car comes only from Texas?
Oh yeah, right....I forget I live in a country where some of the top selling publications are USA Today and Time Magazine (NewsForThirdGraders, and NewsForDummies, respectively).
20080922
I know this might be astounding, but I've nothing amazing or englightening or ranting or bitchy to say.
Oh, at no attempting lyrical or literary greatness. The brain has checked out.
It is entirely possible that I work harder, and wear myself out, on the weekends than I do during the week.
*yawn* is it Monday already? wake me when it's Friday...
Happy First Day of Fall! (and not a moment too soon)
Oh, at no attempting lyrical or literary greatness. The brain has checked out.
It is entirely possible that I work harder, and wear myself out, on the weekends than I do during the week.
*yawn* is it Monday already? wake me when it's Friday...
Happy First Day of Fall! (and not a moment too soon)
20080919
20080918
Please visit http://clusterfook.com/products-page/.
This lady has cancer for the third time and is making jewelry to supplement her family's income as she has been denied all benefits by our LOVELY GOVERNMENT. Visit her page, buy a bracelet (if you can), make a donation, or just leave a note.
This lady has cancer for the third time and is making jewelry to supplement her family's income as she has been denied all benefits by our LOVELY GOVERNMENT. Visit her page, buy a bracelet (if you can), make a donation, or just leave a note.
On Good Morning America, BigMouthBiden said "It's time to be patriotic....time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help America get out of the rut".
He's referring to raising taxes, folks.
It is not patriotic to pay taxes.
No taxation without representation, remember? founding principle, and everything, for the revolution? Did someone fail United States history as well as economics and civics?
I am SO ANGRY about these bailouts I can't stand it. Fannie and Freddie had to be bailed out. Ok, great, so now the government is really in the mortgage industry. Insurance? And now Detroit has come begging?
(here is my aside on Detroit: screw the Big Three. They have faced increased competition from foreign automakers for years. Rather than, oh, build quality vehicles, work on new technology that wasn't oil dependent, improve effeciency in their production lines, etc they spent time and money lobbying for increases in tariffs and taxes on import vehicles. Ever wonder why Honda and Toyota have domestic plants these days? Cheaper to make them here than abroad and pay that tax. For years, those asshats have sat their butts (rested on their laurels is waaaay too polite an expression) and let the money rake in, and now that they look obsolete and can't compete, they want to ask Congress for a bailout. Darlings, fuck you. Fuck all of you. You mismanaged yourself into a hole. I feel sorry for your employees, but...this is a free market. Remain competitive or die. You just died. Time to drop off the vine).
I am very disappointed in the leadership of our country. Whatever happened to accountability? What has happened in our country has happened because of lack of legal oversight (in the mortgage industry) and the complete greed of the people running the corporations of America (the same people who fire you, outsource your jobs, and then whine when their sales go down, and their stocks go down).
Every single American should be asking themselves this question: if YOU lost your company millions of dollars, would you still have a job? If you LIED about how something was funded, or the risk involved in a new project or job, would you have a job that paid you a gagillion dollars (or would you be looking at jail time)?
I see no reason to bail out Detroit. I saw no reason to bail out AIG (still don't). The only thing I see is that the Administration just bought us some expensive debt, that will either be paid for through tax increases or budget cuts. Now, the biggest bang in budget cuts traditionally comes out of military spending...so...somehow I don't think the $160 billion needed to cover the two existing bailouts is going to come out of the Pentagon's operating budget.
I see no reason to bail out any company who pays a CEO a salary in excess of a million dollars (not including stocks, etc). That is just greedy. I think the CEO of AIG, and the leaders of Fannie Mae, ought to be tried for gross negligence and incompentence and sent to jail. What? If I acted like you (or the rest of us in consumer land) the very second we got into trouble we'd all go running and asking for handouts. Wait, I forgot..we used to have the protection of the bankruptcy courts until companies like AIG and BOA and Chase and Citi all got together and lobbied Congress to change the laws so that they could recover more of their penalites and interest under the bankruptcy laws! That's right!! I remember now, the little guy has no recourse! There is no single person on this earth who is worth that much money. Period. End of Story. Ever. You guys get no sympathy from me - you did it to yourself, and you deserve to face the music.
And if that doesn't work -
Bring back the public stocks. I'll be first in line with a bushel of tomatoes. I can't wait.
He's referring to raising taxes, folks.
It is not patriotic to pay taxes.
No taxation without representation, remember? founding principle, and everything, for the revolution? Did someone fail United States history as well as economics and civics?
I am SO ANGRY about these bailouts I can't stand it. Fannie and Freddie had to be bailed out. Ok, great, so now the government is really in the mortgage industry. Insurance? And now Detroit has come begging?
(here is my aside on Detroit: screw the Big Three. They have faced increased competition from foreign automakers for years. Rather than, oh, build quality vehicles, work on new technology that wasn't oil dependent, improve effeciency in their production lines, etc they spent time and money lobbying for increases in tariffs and taxes on import vehicles. Ever wonder why Honda and Toyota have domestic plants these days? Cheaper to make them here than abroad and pay that tax. For years, those asshats have sat their butts (rested on their laurels is waaaay too polite an expression) and let the money rake in, and now that they look obsolete and can't compete, they want to ask Congress for a bailout. Darlings, fuck you. Fuck all of you. You mismanaged yourself into a hole. I feel sorry for your employees, but...this is a free market. Remain competitive or die. You just died. Time to drop off the vine).
I am very disappointed in the leadership of our country. Whatever happened to accountability? What has happened in our country has happened because of lack of legal oversight (in the mortgage industry) and the complete greed of the people running the corporations of America (the same people who fire you, outsource your jobs, and then whine when their sales go down, and their stocks go down).
Every single American should be asking themselves this question: if YOU lost your company millions of dollars, would you still have a job? If you LIED about how something was funded, or the risk involved in a new project or job, would you have a job that paid you a gagillion dollars (or would you be looking at jail time)?
I see no reason to bail out Detroit. I saw no reason to bail out AIG (still don't). The only thing I see is that the Administration just bought us some expensive debt, that will either be paid for through tax increases or budget cuts. Now, the biggest bang in budget cuts traditionally comes out of military spending...so...somehow I don't think the $160 billion needed to cover the two existing bailouts is going to come out of the Pentagon's operating budget.
I see no reason to bail out any company who pays a CEO a salary in excess of a million dollars (not including stocks, etc). That is just greedy. I think the CEO of AIG, and the leaders of Fannie Mae, ought to be tried for gross negligence and incompentence and sent to jail. What? If I acted like you (or the rest of us in consumer land) the very second we got into trouble we'd all go running and asking for handouts. Wait, I forgot..we used to have the protection of the bankruptcy courts until companies like AIG and BOA and Chase and Citi all got together and lobbied Congress to change the laws so that they could recover more of their penalites and interest under the bankruptcy laws! That's right!! I remember now, the little guy has no recourse! There is no single person on this earth who is worth that much money. Period. End of Story. Ever. You guys get no sympathy from me - you did it to yourself, and you deserve to face the music.
And if that doesn't work -
Bring back the public stocks. I'll be first in line with a bushel of tomatoes. I can't wait.
20080917
Why We Protest (or Scientology is A Cult)
We had, one could say, an interesting aside on our D.C. trip.
Earlier, I’d blogged about the anti Scientology group Anonymous’ plans to protest at Katie Holmes Broadway debut. You all know I think Katie and Suri are darlings (even if Suri does sometimes remind me, in the odd way some small children have, of Marvin the Martian, but she’s cute, so it works), and Tom Cruise is just odd.
We’re strolling around in front of the White House, and Mr. Manners is snapping photos like mad. I’m admiring the great job the secret service and Homeland Security have done putting in cameras that give them a view of every inch of the square in front of the White House and every angle coming and going. At one point, Mr. Manners and I both look up at a lamp post and wave. I mouthed “Hi, President Bush!”.
Just like us, everywhere there are tourists, and only a small amount of protestors. Some protestors are carrying signs and walking around silently, while others are dressed in long robes, or are wearing wigs and carnival masks and handing out…anti Scientology literature! We’re approached by a woman in a wig and carnival mask (yes, I have the brochure, and no, I won’t put it up). I’ve had my first real life introduction to Anonymous!
In reading my site tracker, I noted that my blog article had gotten picked up on a message board that seemed to sympathize with the group. That tickled me, and the periodic subsequent hits made me want to leave little messages that said HOWDY!
Later, we’re driving through D.C. and yet again I am lost (and swearing because there is no such thing as traffic flow in that city), we stumble upon a Scientology center with a cross on the building. I’m rather offended by this, because I really think they are a cult, and I’m not sure a cult should….well….demean the cross by using it. Mr. Manners was offended as well, and as we were stuck at the light, and a bit overheated and badly tempered already, well….
Let us just say the words, with the windows down, were uttered at high volume and not necessarily in this order “CULT…..ALIENS……MOUNTAINS!!!!”
Earlier, I’d blogged about the anti Scientology group Anonymous’ plans to protest at Katie Holmes Broadway debut. You all know I think Katie and Suri are darlings (even if Suri does sometimes remind me, in the odd way some small children have, of Marvin the Martian, but she’s cute, so it works), and Tom Cruise is just odd.
We’re strolling around in front of the White House, and Mr. Manners is snapping photos like mad. I’m admiring the great job the secret service and Homeland Security have done putting in cameras that give them a view of every inch of the square in front of the White House and every angle coming and going. At one point, Mr. Manners and I both look up at a lamp post and wave. I mouthed “Hi, President Bush!”.
Just like us, everywhere there are tourists, and only a small amount of protestors. Some protestors are carrying signs and walking around silently, while others are dressed in long robes, or are wearing wigs and carnival masks and handing out…anti Scientology literature! We’re approached by a woman in a wig and carnival mask (yes, I have the brochure, and no, I won’t put it up). I’ve had my first real life introduction to Anonymous!
In reading my site tracker, I noted that my blog article had gotten picked up on a message board that seemed to sympathize with the group. That tickled me, and the periodic subsequent hits made me want to leave little messages that said HOWDY!
Later, we’re driving through D.C. and yet again I am lost (and swearing because there is no such thing as traffic flow in that city), we stumble upon a Scientology center with a cross on the building. I’m rather offended by this, because I really think they are a cult, and I’m not sure a cult should….well….demean the cross by using it. Mr. Manners was offended as well, and as we were stuck at the light, and a bit overheated and badly tempered already, well….
Let us just say the words, with the windows down, were uttered at high volume and not necessarily in this order “CULT…..ALIENS……MOUNTAINS!!!!”
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