Kind of bummed out today

My neighbor died last night. Heart attack. He didn't quite make it to 66. I shouldn't feel too bad. He lived two life times in one. It's just that creepy feeling knowing he isn't there. He was like Billy (Spirits Doings). He knew how to fix just about anything. He taught me a lot about how things worked and the little tricks to repair them. He did some nasty things in his life and some good things too. I guess that's what makes up a lifetime when it's all said and done. RIP Mike

European financial crisis

Saw this article and had to laugh. Europe is worried about the debt crisis spreading throughout Europe. The problem is that their solution will do nothing but make the problem worse. Their focus is with investor losses and not the economies as a whole. They're fighting the problem ass backwards. One only needs to look at how we got out of the Great Depression to know how to get things back on track. Like it or not the taxes on the wealthy will have to be raised. The middle and lower classes have suffered enough. We see now that the wealthy have no intention of expanding production. They are now sitting on $2 trillion of profits. And if you had been paying attention nearly every bill that's gone through congress in the last two years has had some form of tax breaks for corporations and business. Just how greedy can one be? It was to the point this past summer where a company could hire a worker and not pay one nickel in federal taxes on that worker. How much more do they want? They even got a $1000 per worker credit to hire people and yet unemployment stayed at nearly 10%.
What to do then? As the expression goes "if a carrot won't work then use a stick". Increase income taxes on the wealthy. That's income taxes not business taxes we're talking about here. So rather than pull out yet another big bonus for himself the business owner would be forced to put that money back into the business. He's already received a tax credit for investing in equipment.
But there's the problem of demand you might add. How can a business expand without demand? Simple, using the tax revenues from the wealthy and rebuilding our infrastructure. The money then comes back to corporations in the way of federal contracts. People scream about government jobs but take a look at the face of the boss when a company lands one of those fat contracts. And with all those credits and incentives that have been doled out the past two years business in this country should thrive once again but this time with even larger profits.
As for the poor investors let them be damned. We've been playing a phony paper Ponzi scheme for how many years now? Hedge funds should be outlawed for all but the owners of an asset. A mortgage should be sold and serviced where it originated. No more naked shorts either (sounds like something you could wear at airport screening doesn't it?)
So it's back to basics and don't be fooled by the group of professor backwards out there. They'd have you believe day was night and down was up.

At what point humiliation?

Homeland insecurity

Chertoff has recently been busy rubbishing Martin Broughton, the wise British Airways chairman who said many security checks were redundant — calling him “ill-informed.” Early this year Chertoff called on Congress to “fund a large-scale deployment of next-generation systems.”

Rapiscan and its adviser the Chertoff Group will certainly profit from the deployment underway (some of the machines were bought with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Americans as a whole will not.

Chertoff in my opinion is a buffoon. Remember he was the one who told us to use duct tape and plastic to seal ourselves in place in the event of a chemical or biological attack. That's not even standard operating procedure for first responders or emergency response personnel. Depending on room and family size you'd have about 45 minutes or less of air before your demise. In essence what Chertoff was telling us was to drop dead.

Fear can only be sold for so long and it appears that those in power are far more fearful than the average American. Let's take inventory. Since 911 we've had the shoe bomber, the underpants bomber, and threats from bottle bombs. All of these threats happened overseas and were the result of lapses in security there not in the U.S. Bin Ladin must be chuckling from his undisclosed location as we jump at every turn with the next scheme. It's almost to the point where such plots need not be carried out but merely be leaked for Homeland Security to impose the next humiliation on the masses. What's next? Please place your jacket in the bin. Remove your shoes. Remove your pants and bend over for inspection. When someone comes up with an anal insert bomb then the airlines would be finished.

And at what price do we pay for this sense of security? Spending trillions of dollars in two wars doesn't sound too prudent when this country is in recession. It's sure not helping to move the economy as it did in WWII unless your part of the arms market. Then there's the loss of life and limb from our troops. The total price will not be realized for years to come as yet more bases are built and the effects of PTSD and rehabing our troops are factored.
Lastly there's the funding. Funny how there's always money to fund the military but never any to help the unemployed or uninsured. And all of that military funding was done off the books as if it didn't count yet we'll have to pay for it later.

Update: No bank fails this week.

winter driving

Reason for not posting. Resident computer geek went out and took this vid last night and had it not been for a large concrete curb would not be here to talk about it.
The roads around here are so crappy I wasn't able to go out and get the traditional turkey. Everything is ice and I live near a main road. You'll note two buses stuck on the hill in the background of the vid. They were there for over four hours waiting for assistance. As this freezing weather continues it doesn't look like I'll make it to the store by dinner time on thanksgiving. Of course as this year has gone there's nothing to be thankful for any way.

The U.S a Christian nation? Not

For those teabaggers who have this delusion that there is no separation of church and state, guess they were sleeping when the high school teacher was discussing the 1st amendment, there was a good reason for this little detail in our constitution. If they'd have taken the time to delve into the actual early American history of this nation, they would know exactly why the pilgrims known as "Seperatists" came to this country. Things in England weren't too kind to those that didn't tow the line with the church as you will see by this little snippet:

The Separatists had long been controversial. Under the 1559 Act of Uniformity, it was illegal not to attend official Church of England services, with a fine of 12d (£0.05; 2005 equivalent: about £5) for each missed Sunday and holy day. The penalties for conducting unofficial services included imprisonment and larger fines. Under the policy of this time, Barrowe and Greenwood were executed for sedition in 1593.


Then there's the issue of Thanksgiving. There are several accounts from the Plymouth colony and a few of the others who held similar celebrations at the time about how by God's good graces the pilgrims were able to survive the first winter and prosper.
Horse Hockey I say! If anything this holiday should honor the American Indians who saved their sorry asses from starving to death by sharing their food. Had it not been for fellows like Squanto the pilgrims would have been wolf dinners.

Silly to think that the Tea Party would embrace a system that our ancestors were trying so hard to flee. Have they become that which they hate the most?

Pussy Friday

Working on a special pussy Friday after Thanksgiving extravaganza for your enjoyment, so stay tuned.

Soon you can be gay and die for your country but if you're out of the military and unemployed forget it. You're nearly on your own. What's that about the GI Bill you say? A couple of thousand for college and you'll have to find a lawyer to get it. Death benefits for the family? They look for loopholes. Housing for homeless vets? Better find a refrigerator box and insulate it.

And now for the rest of us, you'll need to tell your kids to run for political office because that's the only way they'll get health care and retirement. And if they're smart enough and even if they lose the election they can do the talk show circuit spouting whatever insanity they can think of.

Maybe they were right to block the S.A.L.T treaty. Why not just take preemptive war to the next level with nukes? A country doesn't like what we do and won't cooperate make the rubble bounce. Or how about just totally privatizing our military.? We could just hire all those illegals and have them fight our wars for us. Or take that concept one step further and just hire all the out of work Iraqis and Afghanis and use them for our cannon fodder. Double bonus they won't have far to go home.

So when the whole thing comes crumbling down the pussies with new opposable thumbs will be taking over. Just make sure you have plenty of tuna and treats for your new overlords.

UPDATE:
Almost forgot three more banks hit the skids one each in WI PA and FL.

Don't look now but the boss is watching

Random rants: Congress stood there today yet again blocking a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to those who would lose them at the end of this month. Merry Christmas from the republicans one more time. They had no problem not paying for a war or medical drug benefits or tax cuts for people who don't need them, but throw a few crumbs to the peasants? Never! It's as if they never finished Scrooge or the Grinch that Stole Christmas. Only made it to the part of the thievery and cruelty then put the book down.

The job search has become psychotic. One day I see several jobs listed. Upon applying I find that the company was in the process of laying off workers. Then of course there is a bunch of scams out there too numerous to count. And the rest? If I had another life time to live I could just about qualify. It's frightening to think what the result of the diploma mills will have when yet more unqualified clowns make it through the system. If you think the likes of Sarah and Christine were bad you ain't seen nothing yet.

Loco Smoco

I must give today's youth credit. They sure have taken the extremes to a new pinnacle. Not satisfied with the latest eardrum shattering bone crushing tangent of sane living they have one upped the old man and old lady with yet an acme of higher endeavors. Why have one loco when four is so much better. But maybe in their quest for nirvana they've crossed the line. One can only go so far before running out of cliffs' edge. In the ongoing quest for faster fasts and higher highs they've hit the wall. And I'm almost certain that there will be reminiscent tales of having drank four cans of the fruity beverage in one night repeated again in the depths of the high school locker rooms. Surely they'd not be foolish enough to leave photo evidence on some facebook page, but then I never underestimate their lack of foresight. What the grownups in charge fail to realize is that those they are trying to protect are far more creative at seeking mind altering methods for a Friday night. And far be it from them not to figure out the fundamental ingredients of the Loco juice. With a copped bottle of the old mans' Kahlúa Especial which has an alcohol content of 36% and other creative bartendary they'll have something just as tasty and lethal. We can only hope that somebody in the group will have the minuscule amount of sense to call 911 prior to cardiac arrest.
There in lies the problem. We have leaned on government too long to solve our parenting responsibilities. Rather than tell junior to put down the game controller and get his butt to the ball field we let city counsel banish cardiac burgers from the menu. And rather than solve the root causes of our social ills we're content with letting someone else treat the symptoms. Just how insane is this thinking when we deny a cheap toy to junior while we give away free syringes to junkies? What message does that send?
Now here's a disheartening thought that maybe the insurance companies hadn't thought of. With 25% of our youth being obese in all likelihood we of the older set will probably out live them. That will present a difficult situation of demographics. Like a country hit with war the bulk of the population would be either very young or very old. A perfect set up for total population control. The situation will not get better anytime soon either. As we keep moving away from physical labors to keep ourselves alive our bodies atrophy that much more. Soon keyboards and mice will be as antiquated as a slide rule. They are very close to computer interactions by thought. I could only imagine in a hundred years of inactivity of human blobs in mobile chairs. Remember it's only taken about 50 years to get to this point of obesity.

Snarky news you can't use

Prince William engaged
Who cares somebody pry him loose.

Beatles on Itunes
If you don't already have almost everything they did then Google it. It's out there somewhere.

Arms dealer whisked to America
Will they scramble and flambe him as well? Humm? The U.S. sells more arms than anyone on the planet. Eventually they land up being used on us and this is the bad guy?

Karzi calls on Taliban to join peace process
They'll join only if they can get a cut of the action. When you have a cash cow bogged down in your country you want to suck it dry before it wises up and leaves.

Building collapse in Delhi and a fire destroys a skyscraper in Shanghi.
They just don't teach construction trades like they used to. Codes? We just thought those were guidlines.

Endless Innuendos

And funny how no matter what obscure concept I look for in graphic form I manage to find at least one grunge or heavy metal band by that name. Don't believe me? Try it. Pick an idea any idea and do a Google image search.

Special thanks to the folks at Engrish for the borrowed images.

The solution that's been forgotten

Everybody whines about the defect and the national debt but nobody's willing to actually do something about it. As we all know there's only one way to pay it off and that's not by lowering taxes which has been done four major times under Bush and 16 times under Obama. Republicans keep screaming about spending increases but I haven't seen any increases that weren't paid for in the last two years. Most of the loans to the auto industry has been paid back. But then we have the Bush legacy to deal with. That would be two wars at over two trillion dollars. Then the medicare drug doughnut hole that wasn't paid for and of course the tax cuts for the wealthy and bank bail out.

Funny how some ten years ago somebody figured out a way to get out of this mess with the least amount of pain. A simple solution that I'm surprised nobody thought of it sooner. It involves just one red cent. By putting just a one penny tax on all the transactions at the stock exchanges we could pay off the entire debt and defect and have money left over. Each day on the Dow alone some 200+ million shares change hands. Just one penny per share would make all the difference. And that's just on one exchange. In just a few short years the debt would be gone. Then once we get to the positive side of the debt curve we could start really rebuilding this country. Imagine having a 14 trillion dollar surplus. We could have education and health care covered. We could be lending money to other countries instead of being beggars to China. No more scraping money together to fix a road or bridge or build a hospital. And with the debt paid off we could actually start lowering or eliminating other taxes. Let's see the republicans argue that one. Ladies and gentlemen we're not going to just lower your taxes we're going to eliminate them!

Flying Friday pussy

Pussy has no problem with turbines or bearing casings.

There. That aught to get some interesting site traffic.

Finally won something. Went to the annual turkey raffle at the hall last night and won a gift card. The dinner wasn't bad either. Prime rib, shrimp and chicken with salad was the main course with cake. I though there was a recession on. There is a lot of highway projects going on so I guess that's where they got their funds for the dinner bash. Funny how I was sitting there with a couple of guys who were in maximum shape bragging about lifting weights and which gym is the best. Thought to myself, I can just see them in about 20 or 30 years when their bodies are worn out and all they can talk about are the memories of what they did. Then there was one gal there bitching about being on a job that wasn't full scale. She also bitched when they put her on an easy job and wouldn't let her run some dangerous equipment. I'm thinking, you idiot you make one mistake with some machines and they'll take your leg right off. I've seen the best of workers get hurt with just one slip up. There are some machines that should not be operated by anyone who weighs less then say 185 lbs. and is in good shape. Come to think of it I've worked with this gal and had to redo most of her work. I think you know the type.

That's all for now. Bank fails later.
Brief update: This explains a few things - "$2B in federal projects for Washington contractors."

Bank fails - Three hit the skids 2 in GA and one in AZ.

The home fires went out.

The phrase "keep the home fires burning" came across my visual field this morning. I know what it means but its' history is a bit lost. The phrase was first used in a song during World War I but its' meaning goes back to colonial times. A fire that kept the house warm was very difficult to start. You couldn't pull out your Bic and fire up a presto log. You could go over to a neighbors' house and borrow some embers at the bottom of their fire place or if you were lucky enough to own a flint you could spend the better part of the morning trying to get some straw to ignite. It was therefore important to keep the fire burning 24/7. It meant the house was warm and food could be cooked over the open fire.


I've lost count of all the troops we now have over seas. They get rotated around in what appears to be never-ending wars. I'm sure they have a hope that sometime they'll be able to come home some day even after two three and four tours of duty. But come home to what? It's looking more and more like the home fires are dying. The home was foreclosed on and the occupants are living with relatives or under the overpass. Get a job? The factory was packed up and moved over seas. Munitions expert doesn't really translate well in todays' market. Nor does having to compete with six others for the same job.
We tend to focus on vets who didn't make it home both on this holiday and Memorial Day while forgetting so many out there on the streets who can't come back to the home fires.

Cheap fixes

With winter headed our way, and I hear this could be a bad one, many out there are out stocking up on firewood and whatever else they burn in stoves these days. Last time I checked a cord of wood was over $100 but that was a few years ago. From what I've been told most people can burn two to three cords of wood over the winter. The reason I bring this up is that I finally got around to doing one of those jobs I've put off for quite some time. During some storms last winter I noticed a lot of air coming from a light switch near my back door. That's funny as I had installed a foam seal behind the switch cover some years back. So last week I pulled the trim boards on the outside wall and armed with $8 worth of spray foam and a tube of calk filled the gap at the top of the wall. I didn't notice any difference until last night when I ran the dryer. It got so hot in here I had to open the windows and crack the door.
My point in all this is that rather than spend hundreds of dollars on a heating bill each winter it's much cheaper to stop heat loss in the first place. Last winter I only had to run the heat a few times. With the latest fix it's 39 degrees outside and 73 degrees in here. Actually that's a little too warm for my liking.
Depending on your income the government will give you between $1500 and $6500 to weatherize your home. That covers double pane windows, added insulation, calking etc. This is a rebate of course but the savings can be substantial.

60 drops a minute

It doesn't sound like much but when you're talking about radioactive contaminated water it's a different matter. The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant had to be shut down with a small leaking pipe on Sunday. Technicians had to wait 13 hours for the system to cool before repairs could begin. The company that owns the power plant Entergy wants to extent its' license another 20 years. A few slight problems though. The plant has been cited for leak violations by the state environmental department and the governor is against relicensing the plant. That's not the fundamental and most important issue. The more important issue is that nuclear power plants have a 25 year life span thirty at max. This plant is almost 40 years old! In 2007 one of it's cooling towers collapsed due to corroded bolts and structural components.
And now the 64 thousand dollar question. The Vermont Yankee plant produces 35% of the states' electricity. It takes about 10 years to get a plant certified. There is no way it could remain functional long enough and hold until another plant was built. But this is just an indication of yet a larger problem. Most of the nuclear plants in this country were built over 30 years ago, many in the early 1970s. It's just a matter of time before they start to fail. This couldn't have come at a worse time. With republicans deeming such projects as pork (we saw that with the tunnel between NY and NJ) there'll be no federal funds for replacement or alternatives.

Well well well

The federal government has finally grown a pair and is going after some of these crooked bankers.


70 execs and employees to do the perp walk

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has authorized lawsuits against 70 officers, directors and employees of failed banks, in an effort to recover $2 billion.

And think about this for a second. Are these bankers any less worse than the terrorists? Grandma gets suckered into refinancing her homestead a couple of times because the bank says it can lower her rates and her payments will be smaller. The only thing is she'd have to live two life times to pay it off or even come close to the principle owing. Then when the instrument of financial destruction resets and her payments are more than double grandma has a heart attack when the mortgage comes due. These leeches have effectively sucked the house and her bank account right out from under her.

But this article is more about what's going on in the commercial sector. Companies are playing with funny figures to try and get the edge on the competition. It all worked well as long as the real estate market was going up but once the bottom fell out it was time to shut the casino. That is until the wall street boys who got the bail out were able to start the game all over again. If you think the game was changed with the financial reform bill you'd be wrong. Knowing how slow our government is to act on any situation these guys are cranking out the worthless paper as fast as they can before they get caught. When they do get that subpoena it'll be "that was standard industry practice". "Everybody was doing it so we assumed it was okay". Of course not in those very words.
And what about those legal eagles who are paid to make sure everything is on the up and up? Did they turn a blind eye to stuff their wallets with hourly fees and bonuses too? I think so because after all when they've created contracts that even a linguistics expert couldn't interpret, who's going to call them out on it?
But as we know none of those at the top will ever see the inside of a federal pen. It'll be some poor slob who's job it was to rubber stamp the paperwork at the denied direction of his boss. He'll be the one doing the hard time. His bosses will just ignore the whole process and eventually run for political office. These types of transgressions rarely make front page news unless of course the victims are wealthy in which case there'll be 60 minute exposes and at least one documentary on the History Channel.

What's the expression? "The more things change the more they remain the same".

It's friday and you know what that means

Radioactive rabbit trapped at nuclear reservation.
Yes the legacy of the cold war lives on at Hanford. How does this work you might ask? Simple. The ground water gets contaminated causing radioactive plants. Animals eat the plants and bingo you have glow in the dark critters running around. Coworkers who have worked there say that they even have radioactive tumbleweeds.

Random odd thoughts for a Friday
Nothing is indestructible. If their was such a material it couldn't be made into anything.

Why is it that you can overwater your lawn in the summer and it will turn brown but it can rain all winter with no ill effects?

How is insanity defined by the Tea Party?

If you were comparing the weight and color of cigarette lighters and the darker ones were heavier.
You could say the lighter lighter is lighter.

If we could capture the electrical and chemical impulses of the brain we could effectively record thoughts and memories.
---------------------------------------------------
Bank fails later.

If you're out and about this weekend and you run into a veteran buy him/her a beer. It's the least we can do. If he's the furry kind like veteran cat here a kitty treat will do.

UPDATE: Bank fails. Four banks hit the skids. Two in CA one in MD and one in WA. And the bad news two of the banks were commercial banks. Not a good sign.

Dino Rossi three time loser

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Democrat Patty Murray has defeated Dino Rossi for the U.S. senate seat from Washington state. This will make the third time Rossi has lost in just the last few years. Defeated twice in races for governor by Christine Gregoire and now by Murray.

Will the last person leaving the U.S. please turn out the lights?

Seems some other people had caught on to my little plan. That'll teach me to spill the beans too soon.

Fifty Five million people have inquired about immigrating to from U.S. to Canada in the last 24 hours!

Wagons North!

Note to Canada: Fear not we're an older more mature group of immigrant and we bring with us what's left of our retirement funds and bank accounts.

Help I've been played like a fiddle. That's what happens when you get up too early. Okay back to bed. Hey wait that will mean my plan is still good. Oh you didn't hear that now did you?

So much for America

Now that the obstructionists have taken over let's see what they'll do to finish off the country. They think it's so easy to dig us out of this mess just by lowering taxes and cutting spending. This should be interesting. They said they wanted to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. That would leave a 3 trillion dollar hole in the budget. Watch as your Social Security gets sucked into the rabbit hole of Wall Street. Your Medicare will be an IOU to the doctor and if you're a veteran and get injured good luck you'll be on your own.

I'd like everybody out there who's been out of work for a while or whose about to loose their house to pop a line their newly elected senator and badger him/her "Where's my job"? What are you going to do about the mortgage mess? Keep calling and emailing them just like they've done to us the last three months when they pleading for our vote. It's one thing to spout talking points of how you'd like things to be done. It's quite another to actually come up with a plan that would work.

Now if you'll excuse me I'll be busy checking with the Canadian embassy about their immigration policies. With luck I'll be sitting on a porch in B.C. watching this country collapse. Load your guns boys because when they get through stealing what you have left you'll be fighting for scraps.

Dioxin

Many years ago when republicans had an oz. of compassion left for the American people Richard Nixon started the EPA and Superfund. The reason was simple. An old abandoned canal in northern New York state was turned into a dumping ground for a combination of toxic wastes. As the pit eventually became filled it was covered with dirt because we all know the expression 'out of sight out of mind'. Unfortunately since nobody had bothered to line the pit the chemical soup leached into the ground and the ground water. The rest is history with children developing cancers and birth defects at an alarming rate. I went to school with one of these unfortunate fellows. Imagine going through life with hands but no arms. That was the legacy of the Love Canal.

Understand I'm no purest when it comes to chemicals. I realize that we can not live in a totally sterile environment devoid of harmful things but we sure are lacking in common sense sometimes. The problem lies in just how much of the pollution we inflict upon ourselves. It's been know for centuries that asbestos would kill you if breathed or ingested it in large quantities but nobody knows the exact amount that causes harm. I've noticed over two decades of removing the stuff that permitted exposures have gone down. If you think though that you can get away from this stuff by hiding in your home with the windows closed and the hospital HEPA filters cranked up on high think again. At any major intersection of any city or town car brakes are blasting out the toxic dust for all to enjoy.

Dioxin - Many of the chemicals we use in manufacturing are toxic but the worst ones have one characteristic that makes them stand out above the rest. They don't break down in the environment. It's a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it makes things very durable but on the other it tends to poison animals and living things. Makes for great bug killer but comes back to bite us in the rear later when it won't go away.
Dioxin or a form of it was used in Vietnam as a defoliant. Of the tons the military dumped on the country all of it is still there poisoning the soil and ground water. Tests in various animals show toxic effects at a broad range of exposures. Anywhere from 20 ug/kg up to 1000. So exactly where do we set our standards?
The reason I bring this up is that the EPA is about to change the standards for dioxin. Since 1998, the agency has regarded dioxin soil concentrations of less than 1,000 parts per trillion (ppt) as safe for residential areas. For commercial and industrial zones, 5,000 ppt to 20,000 ppt has been considered safe.
The proposed revisions would drop the safe levels to a fraction as much — 72 ppt for residential areas and 950 ppt for commercial and industrial sites.
I used to know the conversion from parts per million and trillion to milligram and micrograms per kilogram but I found it far easier just to read the surveys or lab reports and check them against a material safety data sheet (MSDS).

Unfortunately this issue will once again become a political football with the conservatives and chemical companies screaming about the costs. But I must ask. What are the real costs in terms of human life and health? Like it or not they land up paying in the end for short term profits.

Decay

I'm watching the demise of just about everything these days. Was this some cosmic perfect storm or something like that? Starting with my own surroundings I seem to be experiencing the end of all warrantees, the end of the lifespan of so many things. I realize all things must come to an end but do they have to converge seemingly all at once? Many things were once repairable have now become disposable. Is that also true with human beings? A shoe lace breaks, a toilet part wears out they've gotten too old and won't function. So we replace them. Time was we'd just mend them and be about our merry way until they could no longer do their duty. Maybe we find another use for the partial lace and it continues in a new career of holding up a stem. Not so with humans. We ship them off to the junk drawer of society. That is until they completely expire. I guess what I'm saying is that there are a whole bunch of people out here who haven't quite hit the age of the junk drawer but lost their function in life. Too young for the junk drawer but too old to be retooled for something else.

What's happening out there right now? The people they're looking for are the ones who find the jobs and coordinate the programs that get things going. But I have to ask where did they go if they're still needed? Did they retire or die?

In looking around the neighborhood and the area I'm seeing more and more decay. More empty houses and closed store fronts are blossoming like weeds in this urban landscape. So many are hanging by their fingernails as they slide into the pit of bankruptcy. Very quietly we're watching the slow death of America. You won't see much of this reality on TV these days, too grim and depressing. You don't need to send people to an island to see desperation it's right here in our own back yard. Flip on the financial channels and you may see a bit of fringe info about our predicament but for the most part its' fat cats and managers touting funds with no real money. You're seeing the feeble attempt to re leverage the financial markets. And while the casino stays open the games continue (24/7 you know) but this time the passerby gets his house pulled right out from under him. House always wins but now they're taking out spectators who weren't even in the game.

So that's where we are at present the grand decay of America. And you thought Halloween was over? Not by a long shot.