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.