Land of Oz

Rockwell to Hopper

A couple of my favorite painters are a pretty good example of how I'm feeling right now about our new house. Up until a couple of weeks ago, it was like living in a Norman Rockwell painting. Cool neighbors, little kids playing in the street, and beautiful back yards. Then the new guy moved in. I suppose you have to bear in mind that before him, we were one of the new guys.

I got home and the first thing I noticed was the beginnings of a chain link fence. There aren't that many fences around here. It turned out he had three big dogs. The previous owner of his house was a lawn fanatic. Lawn treatments, lots of watering, mowing in precise patterns and times. I always felt a bit ashamed that my lawn was barely average. Not bad, mind you, but not all that great.

The new guy managed to turn it into a hayfield in about a month. I think he's mowed it twice (he has a huge John Deere riding mower - I have a push reel mower) and leaves the grass as is. After this weekend's mowing, you can no longer see the lawn for the dried out cut grass. At least the dogs are somewhat quiet - so far. We bought some holly bushes to try and hide our view of his dogs and fence - oh, and did I mention the broken car he parks in his back yard? It's a Triumph, but still... And he keeps his garbage cans outside his garage next to our house.

I hate to say it, but this weekend for the first time since we moved here, our Sunday papers were missing. Not only ours, but at least four other households in the neighborhood. You can imagine who my suspect is - even though that isn't fair to him. So much for Mr. Rockwell's view of life. Now we're back to Hopper and his bleak views of strangers never looking at each other. Sigh...

Labels: crime, michigan

$700 Billion for them

And none for us. The us being not them, not the bankers or investment folks or insurance companies. Us, as so often in the ways of government by the people, for the people, get the shaft. If you haven't looked at the so-called bail-out, you'll notice that it isn't really going to help the little greedy folks who bought houses and properties they couldn't afford and now can't pay for. The people it's going to help are the big, really-greedy folks who made it possible for the little-greedy folks to buy beyond their means.

At the end of this bail out, the babies will be out there floating with the bath water while the rubber duckies cash in their golden parachutes, stock options and retirement bonuses. You, along with your uncle Fred, aunt Mary and cousin Glenda, who can't pay off their mortgage still won't be able to pay off their mortgage and will probably lose their house. The bank that lent you the money will get your house from you and money to repay the lost mortgage money from the government. Which means that not only will you have a mortgage you couldn't pay for, you'll now have to pay higher taxes to pay for that mortgage anyway. Or as the ABCNews says: "…require the treasury secretary to implement 'a plan to mitigate foreclosures' and to 'encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans.'"

But, you say, the government said it wouldn't raise taxes to bail these folks out. Yeah - and I heard London Bridge is back up for sale as well. Did you notice in the haze of $700 billion that there's another $25 billion going to the automobile companies? Those same companies that have been selling $50,000 SUVs to folks who could no more afford them than they could their $500,000 homes. I'll wager those folks won't be getting any relief paying for their 12 m.p.g. dinosaurs either.

Labels: government, gripes

Taxes

I'm pretty much a financial illiterate for any thing other than the basics. I don't like to borrow, lend or owe money. I'm a very conservative investor. I'm not looking for a %30 return, but I'd like to get something back from my investment. Over the last year I've watched my banks savings account, CD interest rates and 401(k) plan all drop drastically. For all that, I can't believe the candidates are talking about tax cuts.

The country owes so much money it will never pay it all back. And we're about to owe more. The country wants to come up with $500 - 1,000 billion to throw after a bunch of bad debt. That money will be going to places who gave away too much money to to many people to spend on things they had no business spending it on. As financially stupid as I am, it doesn't come as a surprise that making a house loan to people who have to take out a loan to make a down payment on the loan is bad business. That situation means that people who have been so close to their financial edge that they can't afford to put any savings away are getting a loan which means they have to spend even more money on to pay back.

Now the powers to be said they want to cut taxes. The country is going to be spending bazillions of dollars more but they plan on taking in more. Even to someone as financially challenged as I am, it would seem that taking in less money and giving out more money is going to cause problems. As near as I can tell, the government is going to a little secret room in the White House and pull out $800 billion from Lincoln's mattress and lend it to people who don't know how to lend money in the first place.

So now, not only don't I know where all those lost dollars went, I also don't know where all these new dollars are coming from. All these dollars appearing and disappearing can't be good. And when I mean all these dollars I'm talking about so many dollars that probably not more than a few people can really grasp how many we're talking about. Multiple trillions of dollars lost and made - you tell me where they are.

Labels: government

Decisions

I just finished reading about some folks in Texas who were once again made homeless by a hurricane. It seems their places were destroyed by hurricane Rita in 2005 and now in 2008 by Ike. Some of the folks were still living in FEMA trailer that were destroyed by Ike. One of their complaints was that insurance would be going up to high.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard about folks from New Orleans who have been made homeless - again. There's all kinds of TV shows rebuilding houses and businesses from Louisiana - This Old House being one of the latest. We still have people here up north putting together care packages to be sent down south to bail out yet another community mashed by a hurricane.

What do you expect? If I decide to build a house on a railroad track, I ought to expect it to get mashed by a train every so often. Building a house on the Gulf Coast - especially the actual coastline, you have a one hundred percent, no doubt about it, guarrantied, without question certainty you're going to get nailed by a hurricane.

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I've heard suggestions that Obama should switch out Biden for Hillary - do you think Palin will decide to switch out McCain for somebody else?

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The Kalamazoo Gazette reported [Judge] Lightvoet had considered sentencing Cleland to 7 months in jail on a felony charge of retail fraud. He also faces a misdemeanor retail fraud charge and has at least six previous felony convictions. Cleland said he's trying to get out of "a really big hole." Lightvoet said it's his last chance to avoid jail.(Cleland will wear a sign on his sleeve for 7 months saying "Daddy, don't steal")

His last chance? Geez, he's already had at least seven of them. I can see a similar article in about six years. He'll have 14 previous felony charges and the Judge will say, it's his last chance - really it is.

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toe-may-toe or toe-mah-toe?

Labels: gripes

Palin

The more I hear about this person, the more it seems she'll be perfect fit into the Republican policies mindset. The first to bug me was her hubby blowing off a legal request to testify. (Honestly, I don't know what exact legal weight that request holds, but it does seem a lawful request that predates her vice-presshipness) She obviously had no problem with ignoring that little legality.

Now there's an interesting email account bugaboo. First off, let me say the folks guilty of breaking in should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Whether they are breaking into Mrs. Palin's or my email account, they should be busted. However, the attack on the email account discovers an interesting work-around for emails. As I've read, "US law states that all e-mails relating to the official business of government must be archived and not destroyed. However, it does allow for personal e-mails to be deleted."

This means that while official emails via her government account need to be accounted for (and we all know what kind of dirt emails can scrape up) any emails via her yahoo account could conceivably be argued as being personal and therefore not need to be archived.

Yep, this thought of mine isn't based on any evidence other than hearsay and fluff bouncing around the Internet. However, it seems to fit into a way of thinking to me.

By the way, have you ever seen the movie The Manchurian Candidate? It's about some guy who spends a long time in an Asian prisoner of war camp where he's brainwashed by the communists into doing what they want after he returns to the USofA. Hasn't McCain mentioned something about spending time in a POW camp?

Labels: computers, crime, government

Big Numbers!

Newsweek: It's difficult to quantify the costs [$.7 - $1 trillion] of these activities [government bail out] for a few reasons. Even though the government has now formally agreed to guarantee the debt of Fannie and Freddie, the White House says it doesn't see the necessity—shock me!—to include the cost of doing so in the budget.

Here's a number for you; 9,727,009,619,894.34. Don't worry. If you click the link the number will change - probably higher. You know what that number is? It's the total public debt of the USofA. Take that and divide it by 305,000,000 (roughly the USofA population) and you get roughly 31,891. Since the USofA is supposedly a government of the people, by the people, etc. etc. that means that each of us has a standing debt of $31,891 (and I'm guessing it's gone up since I started typing this). That's on top of what you owe on your house, your car, your kid's college and that 46" plasma TV you use to watch Biggest Losers.

One of my few splurges is maple syrup; not the colored sugar water stuff, but the real deal made from trees. This weekend I checked out a bottle of maple syrup at Pat's, the local grocery store. The price for I think 12 ounces was $8.50 or so. Last year I paid $3.75 for the same stuff. I'm really glad the Republicans think our economy is doing so well.

Labels: food, government

Sold Out

Yep - what can I say. I sold out to the evil empire and added ads to my blog. They're pretty unobtrusive, so you can easily ignore them if you want. However, if you do click them you reinforce the commercialism of the Internet and maybe make me a few pennies as well. And I won't complain about that.

Labels: computers, scams

What the Hell?

"Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto later urged Congress to not insist on a cap for executive compensation [as part of the finance bailout." Can you believe this? And not too long ago, "Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who recently said the fundamentals of the economy were strong,..." Of course, if I owned 14 homes (more or less) and 13 cars (give or take), I'd guess I'd consider the economy pretty darn strong too.

These execs are the one who held the reins of the runaway loan fiasco. As I've said before, no one forced homeowners to buy big beyond their means. No one held a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy 3000 sq. ft. homes, $40,000 SUVs or $3000 LCD televisions. Me and my wife are in a 1,300 sq. ft. home, drive a couple of small and older cars, and watch a ten year old 36" television using a pair of rabbit ears. Would I like to watch TV on a 52" screen or drive a $45,000 Saab? Sure. And I could get the credit to buy any of that. But why?

Labels: government

$7692.31

Ah, that sound of relief as the government bails out all those banks and insurance companies. Good news - huh? As near as I can figure it, if you take the $1 trillion in bailout money and divide it by 130 million taxpayers, it means your chunk of the bill is $7692.31, actually it's 1/3 of cent lower than that, but what's a fraction of a penny among fellow citizens?

And if you're wondering, I really don't have any idea if those numbers are correct. I have problems with grasping thousands of dollars; millions, billions and trillions aren't even imaginable. I could pay for my house 6 million times over with a trillion bucks - how can anyone imagine numbers like that. I wonder how much Bush will be kicking in?

Labels: government, scams

Small Town Values

In her [Palin] convention speech, she quoted anonymously Westbrook Pegler, the long-gone Hearst newspaper columnist and scourge of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt: "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity."

Small town values may be OK for ice cream shops and drug stores, but do you really want that in a country's president? Like it or not, the president has to deal with kings and queens, dictators, war mongers and mentally unbalanced demigods and do all of this on a world stage.

Besides what is so great about small town people? I grew up in a small town (2300) that makes Wasilla (9700) look big. I'd have to say that our percentage of idiots was as high there as it is in any city. The only reason there's less idiots is that there's less people. A small town upbringing doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a nice person. If anything, if you've lived in that small town most of your life, you're liable to have a pretty small view of the world. Let's see... would I rather have a person who spent most of their life in a small town in Alaska or one who's lived and experienced life internationally as the leader of the free world?

Labels: government

Newspeak

HOUSTON (Reuters): La Raza, a Washington-based advocacy group for Latinos, plans to release a report next month that examines what it sees as unfair treatment of undocumented workers after U.S. disasters, and recommends changes in U.S. policy that specifically would alter disaster assistance programs to benefit Latinos.

undocumented = illegal

The problem with this statement is the euphemism undocumented. They are illegal workers. They snuck into the country against the law. Why do they think they deserve government assistance after ignoring the government's laws when they illegally crossed the border. I've been personally involved in the immigration process. It isn't easy, and it isn't all that cheap, but it is doable. One of the reasons doing it legally is such a pain in the ass is because of all those undocumented workers who break the law. That means that those of us doing it legally have to work that much harder because the government has to spend so much time and money making sure the illegals don't pass through.

I'm sorry, but you'll get absolutely no sympathy from me on the subject of illegal immigrant workers.

Labels: crime, government

Elections

More election stuff. I just saw a headline where McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush - I wonder why. I started to think of what is different in my life over the last 8 years. In general, my pay is smaller and my costs are higher. The value of my house dropped like a moose in Palin's sights - assuming I could sell it. The gas I use went from $1.40 six years ago to $4.40 this year. My taxes have been spent to fight a bogus war in Iraq to remove WMD that have never existed. More taxes will be used up this month to bail out businesses that can't seem to make any money except those millions paid to their CEOs. Countries that used to tolerate us don't like us and those countries who never really liked us, now hate us. Entering the USofA after visiting Canada is now a royal pain-in-the-ass since you no longer have any idea of what the latest good/bad stuff is for immigration and customs. The loonie and euro have both recently hit record highs against the buck. About the only good that's happened is I got a good wife - and Bush had nothing to do with that.

Yep - just what we need - another hawkish Republican to carry on...

Labels: government, gripes

Why!

It remains to be seen what sort of compensation package Robert Willumstad, CEO of AIG, the world's largest insurance company, will get now. On Tuesday, the Fed promised to back loans to the teetering company to the tune of $85 billion, in exchange for 80 percent of its stock. Willumstad owns homes on Park Ave in Manhattan; on Long Island, N.Y.; and in Vermont. According to BusinessWeek, in July his minimum cash bonus for 2008 was set at $4 million and his target bonus was set at $8 million. In 2006, Freddie Mac's CFO, Anthony Piszel, bought a reported $3.6 million, five-bedroom, 8-bath Colonial in Great Falls, Va., that is situated on five acres "with a lake, a floating staircase and two kitchens." Despite steering their companies into financial disaster, the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand to make even more money up to a reported $25 million in so-called golden parachute packages John Thain has been CEO of Merrill Lynch for less than a year. He received a $15 million cash bonus when he signed on with the struggling company.

And there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. The CEOs bleat platitudes about ethics and honor within their companies and then when it goes bust, they take their money and run, while the peons who made them the money get nothing but a letter telling them their stocks are now worth less than the paper they weren't printed on.

And now the government is into it. If you lose your house, oh well. If a CEO loses his company, the government will step in with billions to bail them out. How about getting some of CEOs, CFOs and C-whatever-Os to cough up some millions to help their own companies out - the same companies they ran into the ground.

Labels: government, gripes, scams

Election

Right now, all I see are bad choices for president. I can't decide who is the lesser evil. Everytime I do, something changes and makes my choice worse. Since this has happened a few times now, my opinions of the candidates just keeps getting worse. It doesn't help that the majority of their ads keep telling us how bad the other person is and say nothing about what they, themselves plan on doing.

First I was going to vote Democratic, until the Democrats decided they didn't need voters from my state (Michigan) to vote. So I voted in the primary for a Republican. Then the Republican I voted for lost. I thought about the Democrats again, but I really don't trust Hillary.

Once she lost, I was leaning towards the Democrats again, but some of their positions, especially in gun control, really bothered me, so I leaned towards the Republicans again in spite of some of their positions like war and privacy.

Then the Republicans were born again with Palin and I crossed them off my list. She has a way-to-strong leaning towards a theocratic form of government for me. I'd have a gun, but there'd be so many god-fearing pregnant teenagers running around, I'd be afraid to use it. So I figured it'd be best to give up some rights to maybe win others more important that Democrats support like health and welfare issues.

Now I see Barbra Streisand is supporting the common man Obama with a dinner that costs $28,500 a person (that'd better be a damn good meal), followed by a later event that will cost an additional $2,500. You'd think they include the additional event with the $28,500. And I thought I was splurging when I ate at Outback using a $25 for $20 gift card! I'm not too sure I want to vote for a party where Streisand and her ilk have no problem coughing up $31,000 for dinner and a dance.

Labels: celebs, government, michigan

Idiots - again

Hurricane Ike ... forced the U.S. Coast Guard to launch helicopter evacuations of local residents. At least 50 people on the Bolivar Peninsula became stranded by high winds and rain and are being rescued, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. This drama is unfolding despite a blunt warning from the National Weather Service to residents of Galveston in advance of the storm. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family, one- or two-story homes, will face certain death," the warning said.

What part of certain death don't these idiots understand? And it's not just them. I've read other articles about folks in Texas who are living practically on the beach and have no intention to evacuate. That means that more Coast Guard, and other emergency response, folks are going to have put their lives on the line to save some idiots who don't deserve saving.

It probably makes me sub-human, but I think there are types of behavior that just aren't acceptable and that society shouldn't have to put itself in danger to rescue those people. There's a site/book/phrase The Darwin Awards that document, and in fact award, certain destructive types of stupid behavior. Their logic is that humanity is served when the genes of people too stupid to live are removed from humanity. To me daring a hurricane is one those behaviors we can do without. Not to mention those folks, unfortunately not idiots, who continually rebuild their homes and businesses on sites that past hurricanes/forest fires/floods/etc. have wiped clean. I'm tired of paying for them to continue their idiotic lifestyle. You don't thing their insurance companies are going to repay them out of the goodness of their hearts do you? Nope, the payoff comes from increased premiums to the rest of us.

Labels: gripes, scams

Detroit

What a difference three months can make. Here's two images of Christine Beatty. She's the woman involved in the Detroit mayor fiasco. Mayor Kilpatrick has been the major name in the news, but he wouldn't be in a mess (at least this particular mess) without her. Not that I'm saying either one is less guilty than the other. Based on the below pictures, she doesn't look like she's had a peaceful couple of months.

July 2008	September 2008

Labels: crime, government, michigan

Fannie my Fanny

Well, this is a pisser. We recently bought a house. A nice, attractive small house. Relatively small anyway - 1400 sq. ft. We spent a few months looking at houses ranging from under 1000 to over 3300 sq. ft. And you know what? We could've gotten a mortgage to buy any of them. Actually the 3300 sq. ft. house was pretty cool. Two stories, full basement, monster master bathroom, most all hardwood floors with natural wood trim for doors and windows. Two and a half car garage. The works.

But you know what? While we could've bought it, I wasn't too sure we could have afforded it - or the others in that size range. We looked at another that was over 2500 sq. ft with huge cathedral ceilings for about the half the house. And while my wife really loved them, we decided to aim a little lower and get something that not only we could afford to buy, but that we could afford to keep.

And now the government has decided to bail out a couple of mortgage firms that have lent themselves into penury. And since the government is the people, guess who pays? Yep, us - you and me. So for all those folks out there who bought beyond their means using money they didn't have - you and me are going to have to give them our tax bucks to bail them out. Tax money that could've been used for education, for building new mass transit, for fixing our crumbling roads and bridges is now going to go to pay off people who over spent their means. Yes, there are some who are in default because of stuff beyond their control - losing a job, medical costs, etc. but there are also those who just got greedy.

If a person can qualify for a $400,000 mortgage - why not spend $400,000? How about spending what you can afford? Pass on the second new SUV, the new furniture and the 60" TV and save some money for a rainy day.

Labels: government, gripes

Politics

I supposed I'd be missing all the hoopla if I didn't comment on the current political scene. Both candidates and thier gangs held big meetings this and last week where they made speeches about how great they were and how evil and disgusting their opponents were. And you know what? I didn't listen - to any of them.

Why didn't I listen to such a historic event? Mainly because I think those speeches have very little to do with what the candidate actually thinks. Those speeches have been carefully written (I wonder how much an acceptance speech actually costs to have written) to say what the candidates keepers think the people want to hear.

I'm tired of hearing of how bad the other person (almost said guy) is. Most ads on TV and radio aren't about what the candidate believes or will do, it's about what their opponent believes or has done - with the most negative twist they can come up with.

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After all that, I think McCain's choice for VP has finally made my choice. There are a couple things I don't like about Obama's bunch (I fear his stance on gun control for example), but there's much more I don't like with McCain's bunch. No abortion for any reason, teaching creationism, backing by the evangelists are all scarier to me. I worry more than ever that we are falling into some illogical theocracy who basis of law will be a 2000-3000 year-old book of myths and fables.

Palin doesn't seem like someone I'd want leading my country. She's been mayor of a town with 5,000 individuals (not counting ptarmigans), and governed Alaska for two years. Not quite what I'd call a solid background in statesmanship. The only good thing about her is that if she does get elected, we can finally say, in all truthfullness, say we have a real bastard in the White House.

Labels: government

Labour Day

From a Time story:

This Labor Day finds workers in worse shape than they've been in years, according to a scorecard released Monday by Rutgers University. ...more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, ... "But there are some bright spots long term," Kruse said, including improvements in workplace safety, a small but growing percentage of employers offering support for childcare and employee wellness programs...

Well, so far, so good for me. It is a Labour Day to celebrate. I have a good job, a good wife, and a good home. Too bad, everyone can't say the same. In my neck of the woods, Saginaw, Michigan and its environs, all the bad stuff of life is high and climbing. Jobs, housing, and crime all pretty much suck.

I now live in a little pocket of Americana, that is still hanging in there. It's a small community with nice neighbors, low crime and easy access to shopping and restaurants. Mind you, it's a pretty small assortment of shopping and eating, but it's within walking distance. This weekend, I got up Saturday, worked around the house, walked to get a haircut, then walked over to a nice local bar - no gunfire or drunks, and then on the way home, stopped to pickup some stuff at the hardware and dollar store. All within a 30 minute round-trip walk.

Not too many miles south of here is an array of closed and abandoned homes, factories and businesses. GM bailed and nothing really replaced it. An article in today's paper showed a closed auto plant that not too long ago that was one of GM's empire that employed 30,000 local folks at good wages. Now there's WalMart and Wendys for $7 an hour. There's a little hope. There's some new high-tech manufacturing moving in. We've got a silicon refiner, and there's talk of a wind power manufacturer moving in. Dow is talking about some expansion and the medical community is going great guns.

If any companies are reading this (never can tell...), you should really pay some attention to this area. Mid-Michigan. Land is cheap, there's a low cost of living and a pretty good bunch of prospective employees waiting for a job. There's a commercial airport nearby, and access to the Great Lakes for shipping. The weather is great - not really too hot or too cold. No earthquakes and a pretty reliable source of water nearby. OK, yeah, we have the occasional tornado, but nothing's perfect. Come on down and bring your jobs with you.

Labels: michigan