Thursday, February 16, 2012

News you probably can't use or could care less about.

Unemployment claims down to a 4 year low
Sounds like good news until you look at the rest of the stats. For one I know that that number is not a constant. It doesn't take into consideration those that have fell off being counted because their unemployment ran out. It's getting somewhat better but not as cheery as they would have you believe. Overall unemployment stands at around 23.8 million according to the article which is down from around 26 million at the height of the poop storm. Somebody want to turn off the fan now?

Foreclosures in Beverly Hills
The well to do are walking away from their multi million dollar homes even though they can afford to pay the mortgage. You may be thinking that's a stupid move until you discover that California is a "no recourse" state meaning the banks can't go after the borrower for the balance after foreclosure. That's called deficiency of lien. All well and good for them until they try and get a new loan for another house and the bank checks their credit rating. That next house you buy Ms. Diva is going to cost you a bundle in interest payments.

Save those pennies and nickels
The cost of making a penny is 2.4 cents and the government is looking for ways to cut costs (aren't we all?). Pennies haven't been fully made of copper since before 1982. At present they are copper coated zinc. But to date they haven't found a metal mixture as a substitute. I know back in the 1940s one years' production was steel due to the war effort but if you have anything minted before 1982 it could be worth a few cents and any steel coins could be worth a bit more as a collectors' item. And save your nickels too they're worth over 11 cents to produce now.

A college degree in bowling?
Oh come on now tell me we haven't gotten this low in education. I recall some crazy electives in college but they were not the meat and potatoes of a major or even a minor for that matter. Geez maybe you can now major in sex with a minor in drugs and rock and roll. I'll have to check that one out. Coitus 101 anyone?

Deadly Alcohol needs regulation
We now have the 21st century Carrie Nation a health policy expert from Oxford telling us that the WHO should put mandatory regulations on alcohol. True enough there have been idiots who have abused booze but this is nothing new. People have been drinking for thousands of years and we're still on the planet and multiplying. Ms. Devi Sridhar would love nothing more than to try and regulate human behavior. I think we tried something like that in the past. It was called prohibition and it didn't work then. Ms. Sridhars' concerns is for all the deaths caused by alcohol. Here's a better use of funds and resources. How about clean drinking water food and medical care for the masses? I didn't know they offered a major in drinking at Oxford.

2 comments:

Tom Harper said...

I'm not in favor of a UN, or WHO, global crackdown on alcohol. But it would almost be worth it just to hear the hysteria from millions of rightwing xenophobes. They go into histrionics when the UN suggests guidelines for sustainable development; they'd have a mass seizure if there were any sort of global regulations of alcohol.

Randal Graves said...

People fuck, people shoot up, people smoke, people drink until their innards are shot. Accept it and get high.

♪ Last call
badumbadum
for alcohol ♫