How did that happen you ask? Simple, the falling price of housing exasperated sales of housing, because everyone figured it would keep falling. Construction stopped. Unemployment rose. Joblessness increased and housing prices kept falling, all prices, all housing with or without a mortgage. Local tax receipts went down, federal deficits increased, joblessness ratcheted up and housing prices further declined.
You drank the Koolaid served up by the banking lobby. Don't let them have to face the reality and adjust their loans to real value. No, you gave the bankers a war chest to continue their interests and maintain the myth of their solvency. They will be fine. You however have had your wealth crammed down, your home, your 401k, your stocks and probably the value of cash.
You let the banks make their problem your problem with the help of your masters and rulers. Sweet. Keep on foreclosing on the bums.
_______________________
Foreclosures up despite moratorium and legislative efforts
By MarketWatch
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- U.S. properties in the process of foreclosure in the second quarter rose to a record quarterly level of nearly 890,000, RealtyTrac reported on Thursday.
The total is up 11% from the first quarter and 20% from the year-earlier period, the Irvine, Calif., online marketplace and research firm reported.
In June, properties in foreclosure totaled 336,000, exceeding 300,000 for a fourth month and driving the second-quarter total to the highest level since RealtyTrac began its survey in the first quarter of 2005.
As of June 30, nearly 1.53 million U.S. properties were subject to a default notice, auction-sale notice, or bank repossession, RealtyTrac reported.
Nearly 1.2% of all U.S. housing units -- 1 in 84 -- were subject to a foreclosure filing in the first half, RealtyTrac reported.
Despite an industrywide moratorium on foreclosures earlier this year plus legislative action and more efforts by lenders to modify the terms of mortgages, "foreclosure activity continues to increase to record levels," RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said in a statement.
People who've lost jobs "account for much" of the increase, and borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth represent a significant risk going forward, he said.
"Stemming the tide of foreclosures is a critical component to stabilizing the housing market," and lenders and the government must find new approaches to the issue, the executive said.
In the first half of 2009, properties in foreclosure rose 9% from second-half 2008 and 15% from the year-earlier period, RealtyTrac reported.
Nevada was the state with the highest first-half foreclosure rate, 1 in every 16 housing units, RealtyTrac reported. Foreclosed properties totaled more than 68,700, up 23% from second-half 2008 and up 61% from first-half 2008.
Arizona was second, with 1 in every 30 properties in foreclosure, and Florida was third, with 1 in 33, RealtyTrac reported.
In absolute numbers, California was No. 1, with more than 391,600 properties subject to a foreclosure filing. That's 1 in every 34 of the state's housing units, which is the fourth-highest rate among the states. The total was up 14% from second-half 2008 and up 15% from first-half 2008.
Florida was second, with more than 268,000 properties, and Arizona was third, with nearly 90,000.
Where are those jobs?
ReplyDeletebetter work on those oratory skills and get media friends to come up with stories and narratives for distraction
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe had to do something.
ReplyDeleteTARP was the answer.
It was something.
My mind keeps going back to the Bate Motel, in Idaho, one of doug's favorite spots.
The lot that the motel sits upon, in downtown Moscow, is 30,000 sqare feet, 2/3 of an acre.
The motel is 13 rooms, is a renovated barracks building that was moved to the site, years ago, and a 'cottage'.
Dusty, the managing partner, told US the value was in the land, as the buildings, well, they are renovated barracks buildings, second hand, when they were new.
As a business, from a cashflow basis, the Bates Motel is worth less than $150,000.
The asking price, a cool million.
The 'value is in the land'
Which produces no cashflow, at all.
Are Dusty and his partners insane?
Or just normal Idahoans, who believe what their Real Estate agents tell them about value.
Which is another version of insanity. Like scheduling community meetings regarding Zoning applications, and then failing to appear at them, yourself. Twice.
Sheer irresponsibility and disrespect for the other people
involved, at best, is indicated by that type of behaviour. At worse it is an indication of misfiring nerve connections in the brain.
New Australian research has reversed the idea that a loss of brain cells is the main culprit in declining mental capacity in older people.
The study, led by Olivier Piguet from the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, found that nerve connections decline at more than six times the rate of brain cells.
Which is not Alzhiemer's, which affects an estimated 1 in 10 people over age 65, but another of the many mental maladies that effect the capacity for cognizance in some seniors.
But does not explain the disconnect between reality and the fantasies maintained by Dusty and his partners and their entire community of economic naifs.
Amongst the self-employeed, elijah.
ReplyDeleteOr Government workers.
ReplyDeleteThose are the growth areas.
Walmart is hiring.
26,000 new jobs, just this year.
I understand that there are always openings for taxi cab drivers, in NYCity.
ReplyDeleteBut that may just be a rumor.
57% TAX LOOMS FOR BIGGEST EARNERS IN NYC
ReplyDeleteThat would not be inclusive of the taxi cab drivers.
Times Online - Michael Evans - 25 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteThe lack of helicopters available to British troops in Afghanistan is costing lives, MPs concluded today. A report from the Commons Defence Committee concluded more aircraft must be bought as a matter of urgency for the campaign and the Government ...
Same old story, same old song.
Are we watching reruns?
While these are the behaviours that allen believes that the US should be emulating.
ReplyDeleteLawyers, activists and reporters killed in Russia.
55 minutes ago
Some recent high-profile slayings of activists, reporters and lawyers who have challenged Russian authorities in recent years. There have been no convictions in any of the following killings.
Here you go, elijah!
ReplyDeleteHIRING! 'Grassroots' work to promote Obama's healthcare pays $11-16 per hour...
w/ht to Drudge.
Romneycare Failing, Obamacare Will Follow
ReplyDeleteWe already have a model of how Obamacare will fail: Romneycare.
CEO Charlie Baker reports that his company has seen an “astonishing” uptick in people buying coverage for a few months at a time, running up high medical bills, and then dumping the policy after treatment is completed and paid for. Harvard-Pilgrim estimates that between April 2008 and March 2009, about 40% of its new enrollees stayed with it for fewer than five months and on average incurred about $2,400 per person in monthly medical expenses. That’s about 600% higher than Harvard-Pilgrim would have otherwise expected.
The individual mandate penalty for not having coverage is only about $900, so people seem to be gaming the Massachusetts system. “This is a problem,” Mr. Baker writes on his blog, in the understatement of the year. “It is raising the prices paid by individuals and small businesses who are doing the right thing by purchasing twelve months of health insurance, and it’s turning the whole notion of shared responsibility on its ear.”
I don't regularly bring up Argentina to embarass Carolina's Honorable Governor.
ReplyDeleteI would hope Bates would not be gratuitously mentioned at the Bar.
We all have our sensitivities.
The Tet Offensive of Mexico’s Drug War
ReplyDeleteMy colleague Marc Lacey reported in Wednesday’s paper that the authorities determined that “twelve mutilated corpses discovered late Monday along a mountain road in Michoacán State were off-duty federal police officers.”
A caption beneath a shocking, graphic photograph from the crime scene accompanying an article in The Los Angeles Times explains,
“The federal police officers found slain in Michoacán state, 11 men and one woman, had been tortured and shot.”
A BBC video report on the wave of violence also includes images of the slain officers, who were ambushed when they were off duty, kidnapped and killed.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Mexico’s president said on Tuesday,
“We cannot, we should not, we will not take one step backward in this matter.”
According to a report from The BBC, Mr. Calderón promised:
“The criminals will not be able to intimidate the federal government.”
The L.A. Times notes:
Mexicans seem skeptical. In a new poll, more than half of respondents said they believe the government is losing the war. Only 28% said it is winning, according to the survey, published Tuesday in the daily Milenio newspaper.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that similar scenes were played out in the country’s north, where the mayor of a ranching town was fatally shot in revenge for the arrest of members of a drug cartel:
"CEO Charlie Baker reports that his company has seen an “astonishing” uptick in people buying coverage for a few months at a time, running up high medical bills, and then dumping the policy after treatment is completed and paid for. "
ReplyDelete---
Here, folks were doing that with car insurance, long enough to get it registered, a safety ticket, etc. then dropping the policy.
Don't know if they've done anything about it.
"safety Sticker"
ReplyDeleteMini Option ARMs - Second Mortgage Homeowner Program: Bailing out the Home Equity Withdrawal Machine.
ReplyDeleteThe irony must be clear to others because people take out second liens on their homes to make them more unaffordable.
That is, they increase the overall debt they owe.
In the real world people are still doubtful of the future of housing:
The Bates Motel is an on thread topic, doug, nothing gratuitous about it.
ReplyDeleteWe are taliking, on topic, of Real Estate values. The Bates Motel is the perfect example, and glad I am that you brought it to our attention.
An annual room rate average of $38.
Providing a gross income of well under $150,000 annually.
From that property taxes, payroll, laundry and maintainance must be paid, before there is an operating surplus, let alone a profit.
Put the million in a FDIC insured bank, you'll get at least $35,000 per year without worry or a concern.
Put it in the Bates Motel, you'll be crammed down.
The existing property does not cover operating expenses. boobie's experiences with Planning & Zoning indicates that putting in a six story hotel, would be problematic at best on 30,000 square feet.
The rates would have to raise to at least the $85 per night that the Feds pay when the come to Phoenix to have meetings.
Where is the bottom?
What did the owners thnk that the Bates Notel was worth, before the crash?
Or have they not factored the realities of the economy into their thinking?
Are they really that far behind the learning curve, in Idaho?
Economic naifs
ReplyDelete"Are they really that far behind the learning curve, in Idaho?"
ReplyDelete---
Living on dreams.
Buried in the past.
---
Sangow Bar Village
On a per capita basis, Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous for British and American troops than Iraq ever was. For those who fought in places like Anbar, Basra, Baghdad, Diyala and Nineveh, that’s saying a whole lot. On a per capita basis, there are strong indications that Afghanistan will prove more deadly than Iraq during 2006-2007.
(Great: Kid wants to be a Combat Controller!)
One can only imagine how many days and nights Secretary Robert Gates and his advisors must have agonized over troop levels here. On the one hand, we have a fraction of the troops we need, but on the other, increasing troop levels increases hostility toward us. Secretary Gates has made it clear to me that his biggest concern is that we will lose the goodwill of the people and they will turn against us. This happens to be my own biggest concern. The agony is in knowing we need more medicine and the medicine can be highly toxic here. Many people have complained that the new restrictions on air strikes will hurt us, but from my boots, General McChrystal (the new boss here) has fulfilled the intent of his boss, and that the decision, though tough, was wise; if we lose the widespread assent of the Afghan people, it’s all over but for the bleeding.
Today our chances are not good, but there remains a real chance to succeed. Those chances improve dramatically when we take a no-kidding inventory of the situation and refine our goals to align with reality.
While war ravages neighboring narco-provinces, sluggish progress is being made in others. Here in Ghor Province, the Japanese, Lithuanians, and a host of other nations have teamed up in this remote area of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan:
ReplyDeleteConverted to a Democratic Republic by the power of our magic.
Democrats and Republicans.
Upon further reflection, elijah, I'd say that a great many of the jobs moved overseas. Some to China, others to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteCanada got a few, too.
I do know that the reservation call center for the Fairmont Hotels moved from phoenix, to Canada, when the Fairmont folks sold the business to a Canadian Railroad Company that owned the "Princess" chain.
Forty years of econommic illiteracy in the US coming home to roast the roost.
Poor old Rat, he doesn't really know anything about real estate values up this way.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, values here aren't based on what a property will bring in.
Farmland long ago lost its relationship to earnings value.
Many of our towns are that way too.
Take Sun Valley, or McCall.
The prices are high simply because the areas are so desireable.
Here in Lewiston, a mill town, you can still get something for your money, but in many of the other areas the price has been decoupled from from its real utility.
Up around the lakes, for instance.
On the other hand, down around Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, parts of Boise there are good values to be had, if one were to act right now.
My lawyer tells me, things are cheap in Phoenix now. He has a winter home there.
If you want to buy a tract home in Phoenix, now is probably a good time.
I don't know why anyone would want to though, I think my lawyer did simply because his son is there, at some school.
There are still places here where there are real good values. And, over in Montana too. Particularily there.
But, I'm not telling where.
Afghanistan, it's an Islamic Republic, doug, and even that may be a bridge to far.
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy watch
ReplyDeleteIf it is wrong for a solvent financial institution that took TARP funds at the request of the government to hold a sales conference in Las Vegas, why is it just fine for a structurally insolvent government agency to hold a retreat at the Biltmore in Arizona?
The difference in press coverage is particularly difficult to explain.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds, who writes "Remember, it's only bad when companies do it."
Re: allen believes the US should be emulating
ReplyDeleteTo keep it as simple and concise as possible, you do have issues with veracity. Of course, charitably, it could the loss of brain cells to senescence, possibly acerbated by alcohol/drug abuse. It is not entertaining to see a fellow human so debilitated by either nature or poor life’s choices.
One of the real nice things about being in an area like this is you get over the years to really know some of the other people around. This counts for something. You tend to form some relationships over the years. In my case, it's with some of these old farmers. I may see them only once a year, even two years, but we always take off talking right where we left off last time.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice, I like it.
It's not for everybody, but I like it, and they do, too.
My wife, for instance, has her eye on a little two bedroom, one bath house on the McCall golf course. We're heading out, later today or tomorrow, things always get delayed around here.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't worth it, for what they are asking, about 250K.
On the other hand, though I'm no golfer, there is some good fishing around, if you work for it.
Tough winters, wonderful when blessed Spring comes around.
I'll take a look at it, and, inevitably, do what she wants.
She is the boss, after all is said and done:)
... Generally speaking, however, the rule has been, “To the victor go the spoils”. That is why you will not see Russians brought before international courts for acts committed in Chechnya, for example. ...
ReplyDeleteTue Jul 14, 02:18:00 PM EDT
Using Russian war criminals as examples to be emulated, by US, that's what I read in the above quote.
Still waiting for the link to the Geneva Accords authorizing summary executions, allen.
You said it was there, I wonder where?
While it is clear that "All persons" are included in the protections provided in Article Three of the Geneva Conventions.
There are no exclusions in the signed and ratified document.
I may be adled, but I am not a liar, as you appear to be.
But prove me wrong, as to your verasity, provide that link to the authorization of summary executions in the signed and ratified Geneva Conventions, please do.
I may be adled
ReplyDeleteA glimmer of recognition.
Wanting to invade Syria, while supporting Ron Paul.
Adled?
You bet.
And worse.
The workmen are here installing mylar on all the windows and sliding glass doors.
ReplyDeleteI only mention this because how often in life does the opportunity arise to say, "The workmen are here installing mylar on all the windows and sliding glass doors."
Not often, really.
Makes me think of the opening line of a novel.
ReplyDeleteSome of those rooms normally go for $400 per night, in season, doug.
ReplyDeleteWe ARE NOT in season, now.
That $700,000 provide for many jobs, for real people, there at the Biltmore and the airlines.
That it may not have been part of the direct stimulous package, secondary to its' job sustaining effects.
And AZ not being one of those States that went Blue, like the majority of our posters did. So AZ has been on the short side of recieving the stimulous cash, as doug related to us, earlier.
Now when we finally get to wet our collective beak, doug bitches.
As soon as they're done, I'm going for my monthly Big Mac.
ReplyDeleteLeaving this fine establishment to its own devices.
Sure, boobie, I support the ideology that Ron Paul expouses.
ReplyDeleteSince you do not understand maintaining a consistent ideological position, but I've come to accept that, now that doug has explained to me your condition.
Living on dreams.
Buried in the past.
Once the US decides that it is at war, it should move decisively to win that war. In 2003 I believed the US was at war with radical Islamic terrorists and the States that sponsored them.
Syria is the lynch pin to the Islamic arc and the direct sponsor of the terrorists that harass the Israeli and Lebanese. By eliminating the Syrian offensive military capacity, their armor, we would have diminished their capacity to sponsor international terrorist, in Lebanon, Israel or Iraq.
It subsequently became clear that the US was not at war with the State sponsors of international terror. So that changed strategic reality, come to through our democratic processes, altered my opinion of the tactical course we should be on.
Since we are not at war with those States that sponsor terrorists, advocating the destruction of the Syrian Army is no longer a responsible position to maintain.
The conditions have changed, first under a series of decisions omade by Mr Bush and then those decisions were further ratified by President Obama.
Mylar sunscrean, den mother, or thick storm windows?
ReplyDeleteSotomayor Dissembling on Ricci
ReplyDeleteAny disposition of the case that involved an airing of the disagreements on the merits or even dealt substantively with the issues at hand was likely to create problems for Sotomayor in her quest for the Supreme Court.
And so to protect her viability as a Supreme Court nominee, the panel finally decided to bury the case with a summary order and just make it go away.
This procedural irregularity is what is most disturbing about this case. It is what Judge Cabranes (Clinton Nominee)was shocked by.
It is what Adam Liptak of the New York Times described as "baffling." It is what Stuart Taylor exposed in his National Journal story, "How Ricci Almost Disappeared."
Putting aside the merits of the case, putting aside judicial philosophy, putting aside whether anybody got the law right or wrong:
There is no good explanation as to why this happened, leaving me to conclude that parties who came before a court seeking justice were sacrificed on the altar of Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court ambitions.
I love my wife.
ReplyDeleteShe's easy to get along with.
Always, always, has her face in a book.
Not my kind of book, but it matters not.
She likes this romance and shit.
Not my deep philosophy.:)
Heh, anyway, all she's ever said is, I want a library.
She means it too.
Now I ask, how hard is it to provide a home within driving distance of a library?
She's not asking for silk stockings, nor big nights out, nor Vegas, nor nothing really.
Just a library nearby.
I've had it made in the shade, all these years.
But they were not sacrificed, doug.
ReplyDeleteThey recieved justice at the next level, which the case was headed towards, regardless of the Appellate decision, which its' baffling but unamimous decision allowed for.
The writer is projecting motive from the observable.
Same as I project boobie's real estate drama, based upon the observable data.
Who, what, where, how those are all easy to discern, but the motives that Wendy Long comes to, that really calls into question the honor and verasity of not just Sotomayor, but the other two Federal Judges.
With no evidence of motive obsevable, for the other two Federal Judges to act shamefully.
I've been reading "Now The Drum Of War" about Walt Whitman during the civil war years.
ReplyDeleteIt's good.
The question of Walt's homosexuality comes up, page after page.
It's odd. There are letters and notes along the line of 'slept with Mark T' last night, on and on.
Yet the thing is, we can't pin it down. We can't ever really get it nailed down.
In those days 'slept with Mark T' doesn't necessarily mean what we take it to mean today.
The houses were small---one Walt built was 25 feet by 80---it may not mean what we might think.
The author, so far, hasn't got it nailed down.
There have been two or three waves of Whitman studies, focusing on his sexual life, if he really had any.
So far, it's still a question mark.
This book gets into his going around to the hospitals around Washington D.C.
Day after day, month after month, Walt did that.
It's really magnificent what he did.
And there are descriptions of Walt watching (which he wrote about in his notes) Lincoln going to Stanton's house (Secretary of War) day after day.
Lincoln guarded by sabers drawn group of Army men.
We have a really interesting past, a wonderful country, with great literature.
Let's keep it going.
How often does the chance arise in life to say--
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is mylar?
Never heard of it, but if it suits you, God Bless.
Two doves are on my roof this morning.
I love the Morning Doves.
Blake said something like, it's not just a couple of birds, sitting and shitting on your roof, but an eternity of delight, flying around there.
I think he is right.
"She likes this romance and shit."
ReplyDeleteYes, bob, at Barnes and Noble the sections are, variously, Fiction & Literature; SciFi & Fantasy; Graphic Novels; Art; History; Reference; and Romance and Shit.
My grandmother used to call them her "trashy books" and she read them - still does - by the truckload. She had a bedroom closet full of those bodice-rippers and as a young teen I "borrowed" one and read it in the backseat on the way back to Virginia one summer, keeping it as concealed as possible in a car with four people. Because I never would have heard the end of it. (A Farewell to Arms, "serious" lit, would have met with approval, but Lt. Henry wasn't in an open shirt on the cover, working feverishly to get Catherine's nurse's uniform off.)
So. My one and only "romance and shit" and I recall the story, though not the title, to this day.
Funny, the things one remembers.
Mylar keeps the windows from shattering in an explosion.
ReplyDeleteheh, I think my wife got her likes in books from her mother, a woman I liked a lot, dear soul, who too always and forever had her face in the pages of some book or other.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what one gets out of all of this, not being familiar with that literature.
But I have noticed, both my wife and my mother in law are and were damned sensible people, for what that may be worth.
Oh, my grandmother is an eminently sensible woman. The "romance and shit" a very pleasant pastime.
ReplyDeleteThat same summer I also "borrowed" my mother's The Joy of Sex. I kept it between my mattresses.
ReplyDeleteWe PCSed to Germany at the end of the summer and the movers came. Of course, when the movers come the children pretty much vacate the house for the day. I'd forgotten about the book between my mattresses and when I came back in the late afternoon my bedroom was empty, everything boxed up and carted off. Except for that book. Which was lying all by its lonesome in the middle of the bedroom floor. I was understandably mortified.
I picked it up, opened one of the windows, and threw it out into the bushes.
Hopefully for the education and titillation of the next adolescent occupant.
I'll never know.
Well. There's a Big Mac with my name on it. Ciao.
ReplyDeleteWell, a Big Mac is good, and there is some real joy in sex.
ReplyDeleteI testify to both them truths.
By Sharon Terlep
ReplyDeleteOf DOW JONES NEWSWIRES.
DETROIT (Dow Jones)--Harley Davidson Inc. (HOG) said Thursday that it is reviewing "strategic options" for its loss-making finance arm as the motorcycle maker rolled out another round of job and production cuts.
...
Harley Davidson Financial Services, or HDFS, once a key profit center, has become a drag on the company amid double-digit falls in motorcycle demand that led to a 91% drop in second-quarter profits.
HDFS is "clearly a strategic asset, but we are looking at strategic options to help us get access to lower cost capital," unit president Larry Hund said on a conference call.
A liquidity squeeze forced the company to seek federal support for the business. The company said it managed to secure $1 billion needed to operate HDFS through 2009 but expects further delinquent loan and retail credit losses.
The finance arm remains valuable, Hund said, in helping dealers make sales and finance floor plans. Harley's market share increased year-over-year, though overall sales are down.
Discretionary spending on high-end consumer goods has tumbled over the past year. The head of Brunswick Corp. (BC), the largest U.S. motor boat producer, recently said demand may never recover to pre-crisis levels, in part because of tighter credit.
Broader economic troubles are weighing heavily on the Harley finance unit, faced with higher loan defaults, increased capital costs and fewer new loans. Declining motorcycle values have eroded the company's ability to cash in on the growing number repossessed motorcycles.
Associated Press
ReplyDeleteMississippi foreclosures jump sharply
Associated Press, 07.16.09, 12:20 PM EDT
JACKSON, Miss. -- The number of Mississippi homeowners threatened with the loss of their residences increased 94 percent over the first half of 2009.
That's according to California-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure filings nationwide. Over the first half of the year, 2,175 Mississippi homeowners received some sort of foreclosure-related notice, ranging from an initial notice of default on scheduled payments to sale and seizure.
Making Health Insurance available to all doesn't really work unless coverage is "Mandated." And, I really, really mean "Mandated."
ReplyDeleteYou Must force the "Young, and Invincible," and the "sharp-shooting, nickle-and-dimers" to get covered, and Stay Covered.
It's all about Adverse Selection. That was the First Point I made a long time, ago.
The simple, elegant solution is to collect for a basic policy the same way you collect for medicare.
ReplyDeleteIf one wants a more advanced policy the health insurance tax would count toward the purchase of the better policy. You could do this with a "tax Credit" for example.
Well. There's a Big Mac with my name on it. Ciao.
ReplyDelete*Big Mac--
Serving Size: 7.5oz
Calories: 540
Fat Calories: 260
etc.
Medium Fries--
Serving Size: 4.1oz
Calories: 380
Fat Calories: 120
etc.
Go for it and damn the calories!
You deserve a break today...
*From my own dietary Excel spreadsheet...prompted by a diagnosis of Type II Diabetes and a self imposed 1800 cal/day regimen. So far down 38 lbs, 15 of which since the early April Dx and initiation of diet.
It can be done. I loved McDonalds, too. A now forbidden lust, just like that cute cheerleader who sat in front of me in German class.
Well, a Big Mac is good, and there is some real joy in sex.
ReplyDeleteMay you avoid the situation where indulging in one precludes the joy of the other. Life's full of those choices. Makes the occasional Big Mac taste all that much better, too. Knowing it's forbidden...and will get my ass in a sling if I'm caught.
The evidence of having strayed being sometimes impossible to conceal.
Exxon Mobil Invests $300 Million in Algae Fuels!
ReplyDelete...Exxon-Mobil, the company which practically refused to acknowledge the potential of renewable energy and called biofuels as moonshine, has invested $300 million into algae fuels research. The cynic might say that $300 million is small change for the giant, but it is more than the money that is important over here; it is an acknowledgement that its public postures notwithstanding, the company knows it has to look for alternatives to oil.
In the WSJ, John Yoo makes the case for Team43's illegal behaviour. I did not have but to read the first paragraph to realize it was Bravo Sierra.
ReplyDeleteBy JOHN YOO.
It was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda's inner workings, could not detect its operatives' entry into the country, nor predict where it might strike next.
The FBI had leads to the terrorists at the flight school, in Phoenix. But did not follow up.
The CIA knew that terrorists were enroute to the US. But did not inform the FBI.
A terrorist, that 20th hijacker, had been arrested, again by the FBI, but they were not allowed to access his laptop.
There was the forever infamous Gurlick wall of seperation and the resulting stovepiped intel.
John Yoo addressed the wrong problem and then developed an illega solution for it.
No defender of the Constitution, he.
On July 13 Iran's Oil Ministry announced that it had China's agreement to invest about $40 billion in refining Iranian gasoline. The deal would include financing the major new Hormoz refinery in southern Iran, which will be able to produce about 300,000 bbl. of gasoline and kerosene a day once the four-year construction project is completed. China would also overhaul Iran's aging Abadan refinery in the south so that its production could increase by 29%, according to Iranian oil officials, who provided no deadline for that project.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that little reported tidbit of data ...
The Nabucco pipeline deal is about to close and the gas required to fill it, is still in Iran.
Who will the Europeons be buying their Natural Gas from, Russia or Iran?
Which is in the US national interest to promote?
To go along with our Turkey into the EU policy.
Venezuela and Cocaine.
ReplyDeleteCorruption at the Venezuelan National Guard, which controls "Venezuela's airports, borders and ports" and answers only to Chávez, among the reasons why Venezuelan cocaine trans-shipments have soared more than fourfold from 2003 to 2007:
...
Venezuela is fast becoming a major hub for cocaine trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, according to a report written by the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. The report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office is sure to raise tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. at a delicate moment in the two countries' often testy relations. ...
...
Hugo [Chávez] needs money for financing his “Bolivarian Revolution”, i.e., his desire to control all of Latin America’s politics. For that he needs money. A huge amount of money. The drug trade is one source.
And he's not going to stop
The official answer to elijah's query, as to where are the jobs?
ReplyDeleteWith the unemployment rate climbing toward double digits, it isn't only Republican lawmakers who are wondering "where are the jobs?" "It's always the case that in the depths of the recession it's hard to say where the jobs will come from," says Barry Bosworth, economist at the Brookings Institution.
So, where will the jobs come from? The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently asked just that question. (You can read the report at Jobs of the Future.) To come up with an answer, the economists updated the Bureau of Labor Statistics' job projection numbers that were last published in 2007. The CEA's projections run from 2008 through 2016.
...
Health care and education are two sectors of the economy that have expanded throughout the downturn, and both are expected to account for a major share of job growth over the next several years. Employers in all industries will favor workers with skill and education ranging from certificates earned at community colleges to higher degrees...
...
Cyclically, export-oriented industries should get a boost as the global economy revives. American-made goods are increasingly competitive, with the dollar relatively weak compared with other major foreign currencies. Indeed, Bosworth expects a sharp rebound in manufacturing employment, especially in the manufacturing-heavy Midwest. It wouldn't take much of a pickup in orders for manufacturing management to recall laid-off workers. "The long-term trend is bad," he says. "But the cyclical trend will be positive because it got clobbered so badly."
...
... it could take years to work down a 10%-plus unemployment rate to more acceptable levels, say, in the 5% range. Wages are likely to be anemic, too, considering how tough the competition will be among laid-off workers for jobs. Income inequality could worsen. "I'm reasonably confident about the state of employment," says Joshua L. Rosenbaum, economist at the University of Kansas. "I worry more about the income level we will have."
This fellow was mat's purveyor of doom, was he not?
ReplyDeleteU.S. Stocks Rise as Roubini Predicts Recession to End This Year.
By Whitney Kisling.
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose for a fourth day, the longest streak in six weeks, as economist Nouriel Roubini said the worst of the financial crisis is over and the recession will end this year, while takeover speculation lifted commodity shares.
That was tasty.
ReplyDeleteI'm good to go until sometime in August.
Type II diabetes. (As Wlford Brimley says, "Diabeetus.") I feel for you, I do. Takes real discipline.
I love to cook; I love to eat. Though I don't do nearly as much of the latter as I used to. I don't have the same appetite. Or capacity. Whichever. Honestly, if it weren't for a very fortunate set of genes and the on-again, off-again impulse to vigorously Stairmaster I'd be one of those gals whirring around the grocery store on the motorized shopping cart, my fat ass providing little clearance for the still ambulatory. You betcha.
I am currently at a maintenance-free size eight because the elevation increases metabolism. A month or more back at sea level and this will require a little effort.
Here, I swim daily in a sea of size two's with impressive boob jobs. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
So the mylar is like a window tint.
ReplyDeleteIs it clear or tinted?
I've got an "Over 55 Club Card" from Arby's.
ReplyDeleteThis I hold jealously in my wallet.
If I time it right, I can get a full 20% off.
Chicken Club is my favorite.
They used to have a salad bar here.
But people got sick.
I used to call it the salmonella bar.
Anyways, I use my Club Card.
Why not?
I'm a great believer in the idea folks should be polite to the aging.
Sign of a sensible society, just like Joe Campbell said.
You be nice to us, we'll tell you what the real truth is, if we think you are worth it.
And, we'll play with your children, cause only the old and young know what it's all about.
"I'm a great believer in the idea folks should be polite to the aging."
ReplyDeleteIf only the young could get the aging to stop asserting that everything was better yesterday. Or telling those "uphill both ways in the dead of winter fetching bath water with a sieve" stories. : )
I love to cook; I love to eat. Though I don't do nearly as much of the latter as I used to.
ReplyDeleteSame here.
Cooking my own style of Mexican seems to work for me. Ground turkey for beef in my mexi-mix w/ lotsa chiles and spices, rice and beans. Just picked up a bulky pkg of whole wheat tortillas at Costco yesterday. Twice the protein vs flour tortillas. Shredded Mozzarella vs cheddar & jack. Don't see too many fat Mexicans around here. Beer is a killer, but I refuse to go lite.
Yeah, well, it did seem Aunt Agnes walked further to school, the older she got.
ReplyDeleteBut the truth is, she actually did walk to school right over that hill at Lenville, great woman.
A truthful tale told well can have a little fudging round the edges, don't you know.
"What's for dinner?"
ReplyDelete"Steak and baked potatoes, Grampa."
"Back in MY day if you wanted a baked potato you had to chop and haul the wood with the one good arm that hadn't been chewed off in the combine and take three days off work just to wait for it to finish cookin'. You kids. You don't know what a baked potato is, you don't."
Sorry.
It's called 'epic enhancement' I think, in the lingo of story telling.
ReplyDeleteSame here. Ground turkey. We switched years ago.
ReplyDeleteBurgers are my exception.
God I love mayonnaise.
ReplyDelete(As Wlford Brimley says, "Diabeetus.")
ReplyDeleteWilford was my former public image. Now working on Tom Selleck. :-)
Subway's are good too, Bob. $5 footlong ham & cheese with everything. Good for two meals. And they're everywhere.
I wondered about that mylar and sliding door install. Kinda suspected what you confirmed. Must be some tough mylar.
Size two's with... hmm..
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, go to the CATO institute to hear a pariah of the left deliver a damning address on the Canadian Health Care Experience.
Go to Business Daily to hear how the Chinese are going to be kicking our sorry service industry asses in the coming years. Fast forward to the 10:50 mark.
While we're adding those Walmart, weatherizing, health care and guvmint jobs, they're going to be manufacturing wind turbines for the whirled. We deindustrialised and told ourselves that we could get by on our knowledge industry...
'epic enhancement'
ReplyDelete- bob
I appreciate its value, bob. I have about stock twenty stories that I retell wherever we go and they, in turn, are passed around. My signature epic enhancement: Whatever fix we found ourselves in, it was most assuredly HIS fault. : )
The canoe trip involving the 25 ft. "surprise" damn first day out.
ReplyDeleteThat's a favorite here.
The Third Wave, whit.
ReplyDeleteThe Third Wave is a book published in 1980 by Alvin Toffler. It is the sequel to Future Shock, published in 1970, and the second in what was originally just a trilogy that was continued with Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century in...
Another PBS intellectual that came to be seen as prophetic, while they were just propagating a myth.
The Third Wave is the post-industrial society. Toffler says that since the late 1950s most countries have been transitioning from a Second Wave society into a Third Wave society. He coined many words to describe it and mentions names invented by others, such as the Information Age.
So's others don't feel left out by the gustatory diversion...
ReplyDelete‘Iron Dome’ Hits the Target, defense vs Katyusha & Kassam rockets, A7, 7-16-09.
Israel's new anti-ballistic defense system, designed to protect civilians against terrorist rocket fire from Gaza, passed series of live tests on Wednesday.
...
The system might also be used to protect the rest of Israel from longer range attacks launched against the Jewish state from Syria or Iran. Israel has asked the United States to foot the bill for approximately 65 percent of the development costs for the project.
---------
Chew on that awhile, fellers.
Well of course, hubby is the villain.
ReplyDeleteNo news in that here.
This is proper storytelling, of the best kind, and the wife comes to the great rescue, saving family and friends.
No news here.
Continue on, I love it.
I heard that none of the stimulus money for weatherizing has been spent because Congress, in their wisdom, had put Davis Bacon requirements on it. In NYC those Obama boys would have been making $55 an hour.
ReplyDeleteJust stirrin' the pot...
ReplyDeleteheh, it's when the female stories get overwhelming, that the men begin to form secret societies, and some real trouble begins.
ReplyDeleteAlas.
Will muslim workers refuse to labor on federal jobs, bein' paid Davis Bacon rates and all?
ReplyDeleteIt uses a small kinetic missile interceptor ...
ReplyDeleteTo hit a mortar round, in flight.
That's some kind of shootin'.
In my little family here, my wife has the checkbook, carefully guarded.
ReplyDeleteHow this came about, I don't really recall.
It just seemed to have happened.
It doesn't seem right, as I am the more propertied one, of us two.
But it is the way it is.
I do have my Club 55 Card, however, no one can take that away from me.
Plus the unsuccessful kinetic interceptors could fall back onto the target's zone of origin? Oh, my!
ReplyDeleteRat, I don't see why you keep commenting on overseas issues.
ReplyDeleteYour guy was Ron Paul.
Who wants to bring all the troops home from everywhere.
Why do you keep commenting on overseas affairs, like a General in command of mythic armies, when you are the guy that has hitched his star to Ron Paul, the bring 'em all home guy?
This doesn't make any sense to me, until I begin to understand you as a really bored and discontented man, who can't stand the feel of his own skin any longer.
$300 million by 2010.
ReplyDeleteIsrael, 7.30% of GDP for military expeditures
GDP = $200.7 billion
7.3% = $14,651,100,000
65% of $300 million = $195 million
$195 million = 1.3% of all Israeli defense spending.
That's what this particular subsidy would amount to.
Developed under contract by Israel Military Industry’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the $300 million system which was tested at the Ramon Air Force Base in southern Israel will reportedly be ready for operation by 2010.
ReplyDeleteThe Rest of the Story:
Terrorists expected to reveal new terror delivery mechanism in 2010.
Arutz Sheva is just full of good news today.
ReplyDeleteIsraeli missle sub and 2 missle boats transit Suez Canal to Red Sea, A7, 7-16-09.
Israel to Hit Iran as Part of Deal including Yesha Evictions'
by Gil Ronen
As two Israeli missile-class warships joined a navy submarine in the Red Sea, an Israeli defense source made it clear that the moves are intended as a threatening message to Iran.
...
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a news conference Wednesday that the ships passed through the canal with Egypt’s permission, and that “ships may pass through the canal as long as they do not threaten the country which controls the canal.” He noted that the international agreements regulating which ships may pass through the Suez Canal date back to 1888.
The two Saar-class ships, INS Eilat and INS Chanit, sailed into the Red Sea Wednesday in what was the report described as “a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice.”
Ten days earlier, a Dolphin-class submarine with nuclear-missile strike capabilities passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea as well. Later reports said it, too, was accompanied by two Israeli missile boats – meaning that four missile boats have now crossed the canal. Israel has six Dolphin-class submarines, three of which are believed to carry nuclear missiles, the Times said.
Later this month, the Israel Air Force will hold long-range exercises in the U.S. and will test a missile defense shield at a U.S. missile range in the Pacific Ocean.
While local Israeli media have played up alleged tensions between Egypt and Israel over past statements by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Times report says that Israel “has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran” and quotes an Israeli diplomat who said that relations with Egypt, in particular, have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran."...
--------
The pot simmers as the players turn up the heat?
Via Drudge:
ReplyDeleteJoe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
Vice President Joe Biden (CNSNews.com) – Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money.
Rat, I don't see why you keep commenting on overseas issues.
ReplyDelete...
Why do you keep commenting on overseas affairs, like a General in command of mythic armies, when you are the guy that has hitched his star to Ron Paul, the bring 'em all home guy?
---------
Maybe because somebody stirred the pot, Bob.
Take a deep breath and scroll like your life depended on it.
I'd bring the troops home from most places, boobie.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Ron Paul is not a force in DC does not escape me. In fact what I would do is unimportant to the discussion.
It has rarely ever been about me or what I thought we SHOULD be doing, But on what the US was doing. Excepting Iraq in 2004, 05, and 06 where I advocated for a policy similar to the one subsequently taken. A policy that leads to withdrawal.
So while I support the removal of US ground troops from Europe and Korea, I do not advocate abandoning Diego Garcia or Okinawa.
But we are so far and away from that detail that it is really inconsequental.
The ideology I support is out of favor, aleays has been, Does not mean that I would withdraw from the debate. Anything but.
It generates a need to double down on the efforts to inform the folk of the needless addition to our trillion dollar deficit, keeping troops in Europe and Korea.
Borrowing Chinese dollars to do so.
Must be some tough mylar.
ReplyDeleteThu Jul 16, 05:32:00 PM EDT
Um, whatever State can afford.
Actually the surprise damn WAS his fault, bob. As were the frantic paddling and five hours of angry silence that followed the very long, hot portage. *Little map glitch.*
He rather made up for it the next day. And the next. And the next.
One of the best trips of our lives, just the two of us.
I just gleefully and theatrically convey it.
"Do you hear that?"
"Yeah."
"What in the hell?"
"Power plant?"
Minutes pass.
"That's not a good sound."
Young revelers on the high bluffs over the river wave arms and shout.
"Well. Seems like they're having a good time..."
Big signs comes into view on either bank. "EXTREME DANGER..."
Couldn't have placed that fucker one mile back, right?
Fox Hides Fact Obama Throws Like Girl Sweetness & Light
ReplyDeleteRush referred to Sweetness:
In the hilarious comments are links to videos of the Kenyan Sissy dancing, bowling, boxing... all cringe inducing.
Coolest guy is golf cart driver who refuses to acknowledge our Commie in Chief.
---
Last two comments:
12 Gauge Rage
July 16, 2009 at 8:15 am
Pretty pathetic pitching. Do you suppose he can handle the recoil from firing a Daisy Red Rider BB gun?
BigOil
July 16, 2009 at 10:03 am
There may be a valid reason Obama can’t throw a baseball. Many of us were taught by our fathers how to toss a baseball when we were kids. Obama’s dad was a little preoccupied populating Africa.
Log in to Reply
Same old same old huh?
ReplyDelete---
Why doesn't somebody cut Bob's strings?
I don't think 'Rat will mind, and we'll get to see what he does next.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteMay I ask where you and hubbie(approximately, of course) are?
Couldn't have placed that fucker one mile back, right?
ReplyDeleteBut then you'd of missed the exercise and havin' a life-long tale to tell.
Good narrative. Brings back memories.
Like stretching the drive from Lakeview, OR to Winnemuca, NV on under a half a tank of gas in the Volvo because I was too stubborn to turn back to Klamath Falls in the middle of the night. Made it, too. Shifting into neutral at every little crest and coasting to the next grade pitch.
I'm gonna go talk this over with Agnes, in my mind, who would never have bought a computer in the fisrt place.
ReplyDeleteThe ObamaCare, or rufuscare package has to paid for.
ReplyDeleteA trillion dollars over ten years, I hear people say on the flat screen.
So that is $100 billion per year.
The US spends 4.06% of GDP on its' military and 17% on healthcare, currently.
That GDP = $14.29 trillion
4% = $571,600,000,000
17% = 2,429,300,000,000
Got to reallocate $100,000,000,000 out of that $3 trillion bucks. Rearrange the divy of the pot.
While cutting overall deficit spending by any number up to a trillion.
$1,000,000,000,000.
Annually.
Those overseas troops are a great place to start, economizing.
Hey, Linear, do you know the Steens?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great drive down that way, can't think of the Highway number.
Absolutely beautiful.
There are an exteme amount of beautiful spots, out here in the West, I've bought a camera, need a telephoto lens, the wife just loves that kind of travel.
We're finally going to get that peace dividend and just in time too!
ReplyDelete"Ain't gonna study war no more."
Trish,
ReplyDeleteMay I ask where you and hubbie(approximately, of course) are?
Thu Jul 16, 06:26:00 PM EDT
What, you mean now?
Bogota.
At least, one of us is.
Like stretching the drive from Lakeview, OR to Winnemuca, NV on under a half a tank of gas in the Volvo because I was too stubborn to turn back to Klamath Falls in the middle of the night. Made it, too. Shifting into neutral at every little crest and coasting to the next grade pitch.
ReplyDeleteThu Jul 16, 06:26:00 PM EDT
Oh, I know a guy who'd love to have a few beers with you.
I'm glad to have you as our (only) good news messenger, but how is that arrangement (Bogata) explained?
ReplyDeleteThe dam, OTOH, was on the North Forth of the Shenandoah.
ReplyDeleteThe kid (about 8, I think) and I waited for the train at midnight outside the Klamath Falls Station.
ReplyDeleteHe's only gone for a few days this time, Doug.
ReplyDeleteFacts on the Cost of Health Insurance and Health Care
ReplyDeleteIntroduction
By several measures, health care spending continues to rise at a rapid rate and forcing businesses and families to cut back on operations and household expenses respectively.
In 2008, total national health expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent -- two times the rate of inflation.1 Total spending was $2.4 TRILLION in 2007, or $7900 per person1. Total health care spending represented 17 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4.3 TRILLION in 2017, or 20 percent of GDP.1
In 2008, employer health insurance premiums increased by 5.0 percent – two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,700.2
Experts agree that our health care system is riddled with inefficiencies, excessive administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, and inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems significantly increase the cost of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers and affect the security of families.
National Health Care Spending
In 2008, health care spending in the United States reached $2.4 trillion, and was projected to reach $3.1 trillion in 2012.1 Health care spending is projected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2016.1.
The numbers are insane, for the poor service that is delivered to so many, at the highest per capita cost in the entire whirled.
North FORK of the Shenandoah.
ReplyDeleteExtremely Large Format
ReplyDeleteShaun Irving, 34, has always been into photography. So much so that for the past six years, he has been taking photographs from inside his cameras: old delivery trucks he’s turned into mobile cameras by tricking them out with surplus military lenses and heavy doses of ingenuity.
Thus, the “world’s largest traveling camera,” which has taken photos from Virginia to Spain and back again. The proof can be found at cameratruck.net, a Web site dedicated to all things camera truck.
Secesh.
ReplyDeleteGreat river.
Seventy Seven percent of the people are satisfied with their healthcare.
ReplyDelete(Not that it doesn't need some revamping wrt eligibility/portability)
What is Congresse's Satisfaction index ?
The DMV ?
Postoffice ?
Hey, Linear, do you know the Steens?
ReplyDeleteI didn't get that far east, Bob. Would like to see it/them someday.
Long ago, massive internal pressure forced the east edge of the Steens upward along a fault line. The result was a 30-milelong fault-block mountain with a spectacular and rugged east face that rises abruptly, one vertical mile above the Alvord Desert. The Steens: is the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin.
The Steens sound similar to the east flank of the Sierra, only more so. Down around Lone Pine you go from elev 3,727 on Hwy 395 up to the Mt Whitney summit at 14,494 in just a few miles as the eagle flies. The whole east flank from Carson City down to Mojave is impressive.
Secesh.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of river some stupid bastards would want to sell off to the highest bidder.
Thank Christ, it doesn't look to happen.
If you go to that CIA page on comarative military spending then link back to the county page for the GDP data. It is interesting, if that is the kind of stuff that interests you.
ReplyDeleteFigure the dollars, access the threats.
The million man South Korean Army can defend South Korea. There is no need for 25,000 US troops to be there. Except to die in case of NorK aggression.
The Europeons can defend themselves, their economies and people are capable of projecting power or protecting themselves, if they had to. They and the Koreans, both. We left Clark Field and Subic Bay and lo and behold, the world did not end.
There is no need or good reason for US to be there, with ground troops.
That's all good and well, and I might agree with you, ( but not really) but then why are you advocating invading Syria?
ReplyDeleteYou are a confused man.
Here, this what the Federals do to wild rivers.
ReplyDeleteThat and flooding Glen Canyon. That's what the Federals do to wild rivers, wjen there were no activist Judges or Earth First radicals to stop them.
Ron Paul says withdraw from everywhere.
ReplyDeleteLet the Iranians have their nukes ,too.
Or, anybody else.
I don't think that is a sensible, or even possible, outlook in our modern world, given trade, etc.
But under our new minted President, whom none of us here can really stand, it may well come to pass.
I think our society is on the way down.
Bunker up, or read poetry.
This has all happened before.
"The whole east flank from Carson City down to Mojave is impressive."
ReplyDelete---
Unless you're in a glider and don't want to die.
I have not advocated for years, boobie, when we were at war.
ReplyDeleteLibertarians understand the need for wars, in any war the objective is to win, or that is what the Libertarian ideology extols, victory if all else fails.
But try evetything else, first.
Syria is a sponsor of terrorists, that made it a State we were at war with, according to Mr Bush's Doctrine of 2001 & '02. I advcate tactics that would have won the war. The destruction of the Syrian Army which, as was demonstrated during the successful phase of Desert Storm, could be done from the air.
Unlike Mr Campbell position in your reality, boobie, I am not an acloyte of Mr Paul.
He just is the only figurehead to currently be in Federal office that comes close to my ideological positions. But I'm sure that if we dug real deep, I'd find reason to find fault with him, somewhere.
Which is why I didain these cults of personality that you find so central to your thinking.
Even if HE were to have been elected, President, not much would changed, quickly.
But who knows, he did not even win a single caucus State. So it is inconsequental what he advocates.
So your restitution of a mistake in the past is to sell off the remaining.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on some of the past.
I have no argument with that.
But you seem to want to sell off the remaining.
You, yourself, would never get an acre of it.
You'd still be sitting in your hut in Phoenix, hot as hell.
I say, keep it for all of us.
That's what the Federals do to wild rivers, wjen there were no activist Judges or Earth First radicals to stop them.
ReplyDeleteShould do more of it, imo. But, I'm an engineer, so whatdaya expect?
62. Annoy Mouse:
ReplyDelete“See China and opium.”
I may be wrong but the Chinese haven’t had that much problem with opium since Mao took over.
The bottom line is kids do try it. Homosexuality is legal too AND the government not only condones it but highly recommends it.
Sooner or later people got to grow up and be responsible for themselves. There is nothing keeping kids from sniffing gas, smoking banana peels and they do. It is not illegal to eat dog sh!t but maybe it ought to be. We are f-ing ourselves out of fundamental rights for the sake of the children. When I was a kid nopbody gave a crap about kids, It was easier to have another. Now, now that Jenny has two mommys each little mini-me is so precioius the rest of us have to live under tyranny so little Jenny doesn’t bunch her little shorts up into a knot. Well F- Jenny, her mommies and the rest of the dirt bags. Who wants to live in a world run by a bunch of fanatical @ssholes anyhow? I don’t.
We will sell off the National Forests (we all agree they can be better managed)
ReplyDeleteand Rat will feel good about himself
sitting there in the hot shithole of Phoenix, Arizona.
This is called minding the Constitution.
Fool.
"Should do more of it, imo. But, I'm an engineer, so whatdaya expect?"
ReplyDelete---
Nah, outta put a shunt on Bonneville until it's torn down, build windmills, spread nitrogen for corn for rufus, tax and spend, freeze, die.
Pissed me off A LOT when they tore down Matilaha (can't spell it) dam down by Ojai.
Great little dam.
Matilija Dam removal OK'd : Ojai : Ventura County Star
ReplyDeleteSep 25, 2007 ... Ventura County has finally won approval from Congress to tear down the Matilija Dam near Ojai.
Unless you're in a glider and don't want to die.
ReplyDelete:-)
May be some down drafts along that stretch, Doug. The eagles like it.
Not far south, just east of Mojave, the world altitude record for soaring was set by a glider out of Tehachapi. Wind farm country now.
Cram down, that deal you linked to doug, about Kyl and the stimulous money.
ReplyDeleteKyl gets on the flat screen Sunday programs and tells US we should halt further stimulous payments.
TeamObamamerica writes our new GOP Lady Governor, asking if it is true that AZ does not want those stimulous checks from the Federal treasury. Checks amounting to 100's of millions of dollars.
Why of course we want our "Fair Share" says the Lady Governor.
'Poor Form!' shouts Senator Kyl, like one of the boys in Robin Williams's "Hook", the tale of Peter Pan.
Figure the food fight is about to start
I always wondered why they could not have drains/settling ponds for the sediment...
ReplyDeleteBeats tearing them down and going broke while freezing to death.
(If it's feasible)
I thot the Guv sounded reasonable, maybe I just skimmed it?
ReplyDeleteThe dam removal project is currently in the design phase. Actual removal of the dam is slated from 2010 to 2012, said Sue Hughes, Ventura County's legislative analyst.
ReplyDeleteTotal cost of the project is projected at $144.5 million. The federal government's share is projected at $89.7 million. Local agencies would have to pick up the rest of the project costs.
The county already has received $7 million in state grants for design work, the construction of wells near Foster Park in Ventura and the removal of arundo from the watershed. Arundo is a nonnative, highly invasive weed that is destroying native habitat.
The state funding came from voter-approved bonds.
---
I thot it was already down.
Maybe we'll be broke or China will buy it before then.
CA IS broke, but they still voted FOR a Bullet Train from SF to LA!
ReplyDeleteSmart, very smart.
Sep 25, 2007 ... Ventura County has finally won approval from Congress to tear down the Matilija Dam near Ojai.
ReplyDelete...and now the dumb fucks can't find enough water to flush their toilets or fill an air tanker for wild fire suppression. Is it just me, or are the residents of Ojai all cousins of the folks in Deliverance?
Great weather here in winter, mid 70's most of the time.
ReplyDeleteWonderful.
In the summer, head north to 5,000' or stay in the A/C, in town.
Really does not matter much, the weather. Not when you have technological advantage.
Gettin' yourself all wound up again, boobie.
Even duece agrees we should be selling off the Federal lands.
The Federals have to downsize or go bust. They already are busted, and you do not want a tax increase to close the spread between revenues and expeditures.
But will not, can not point to a single cut you'd make in a Federal program. Each being vital to your interests.
Maintain course and speed, that's your doctrine. We're about to run aground, even you bemoan the cultural and political changes that have become evident on the country, but embrace the causes of the change as holy.
Literally.
Even duece agrees we should be selling off the Federal lands.
ReplyDeleteIf deuce has said that, he's wrong.
You yourself, Rat, would never get an acre of it.
You are a fool. You will be sitting there hot as hell in Phoenix, cussing everyone else, as is your wont.
The Gov was reasonable, doug.
ReplyDeleteIt's Kyl that's out parroting the GOPartyline.
Like a kid on Spring Break, just keeps partying, until he phones home for another cash advance, he's damn irresponsible.
And what did he expect Team Obama to do, let him bitch and then take credit for the money spent in AZ, come election time?
Kyl is inexperienced as a GOP spokesman, with a White House in opposition.
I always wondered why they could not have drains/settling ponds for the sediment...
ReplyDeleteBeats tearing them down and going broke while freezing to death.
(If it's feasible)...
Be careful whose information you trust as to that reservoir filling line, Doug. I doubt it's as dire as the greenies paint it to be, and if so? Flush the damn thing. Pun intended.
The Big Creek Hydro system has been pumping out juice to feed southern cal's air conditioning, ev's and flat screens for near a century. Paid for itself many, many times over. Piss on the wild river rats. Only a couple of hundred rafters and kayakers a season ever see most of the white water. Let 'em go to Wild Water Adventure, I say.
But, I'm an engineer.
Rather, the people that would end up with it is the folk you say you hate so much.
ReplyDeleteYou are a fool.
Bubbly bubbly, here goes boobie, again.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the den mother will come back and console you, some more.
Have some nice long talks.
Calm you down.
Who's Agnes?
'WE HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO KEEP FROM GOING BANKRUPT'
ReplyDeleteI think we could and should sell off some Federal lands. Might have to some enough. Heck, they'll be selling off the interstate highways soon enough too. The Feds have waaaaaaaay too much land.
ReplyDeleteNational forests were established to provide for the nations recreation and lumber... Nowadays the forests are increasingly off limits to anyone but the hardiest hikers and forget about serious forest management for lumber.
Rat wants to sell off the National
ReplyDeleteForests to the very people he claims to hate.
Rat is a fool.
Agnes was my good Aunt, who raised me, mother working all the time, at the court house, keeping records, and taking dictation in the trials.
She could also play the piano, though this skill wanned as she got further and further into being the lady that made the court go.
You and this hate thing, boobie
ReplyDeleteHate just is the center of your being.
You project it on to others, that do not feel the emotion the way you do.
Who do I hate?
Can't hardly think of an individual, other than you.
And you are only an avatar representing PBS intellectualism, which I've always disdained, even before I discovered you claim to be a member of that elite.
But I do not hate them.
The Russell Company boys, certainly do not hate them.
Not the FreeMasons, they founded the United States, love those fellas.
So who do I hate, boobie?
Who would buy the Federal lands?
But folks that were or wanted to be Americans, like your Grand daddy.
Folks that would create jobs.
CBO: Federal budget is on unsustainable path...
ReplyDeleteSay it ain't so, Joe!
Bill Moyers?
ReplyDeleteCertainly would not hate that.
ReplyDeleteNor would elijah.
What'd you propose, boobie?
How do we close the spread, between Federal revenue and expenditures?
Certainly there was a PBS Special that had your answer.
I'm not going to argue it with you, Whit, but you are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI can understand it, you being from Florida, I quess.
Only a fool would want to sell off the remaining national heritage.
Do you really think that you yourself would actually get something out of it?
There is power in prayer, but not that much.
Rufus say's there's power in grass.
ReplyDeleteWhat's he been smokin?
Coal Bad
ReplyDeleteCorn Good
(Except in China)
ReplyDeleteWhat'd you propose, boobie?
ReplyDeleteHow do we close the spread, between Federal revenue and expenditures?
Easy enough, asshole, get rid of the capital gains tax, which jeolous folk like you probably support, and lower the corporate tax rate too.
You will never get one acre out of the national forests.
Just turn your air conditioner up, shit head, and relax.
Cause you surely don't seem to be the type of guy that likes going driving with the wife.
ReplyDeleteIf she would consent to go with you, voluntarily.
I'm goin' down for the mail now. You boys behave yourselves, ok?
ReplyDeleteIf the National
ReplyDeleteForests were to be sold off, there is not one of us here, not one, not deuce, not Whit, not boobie, not Trish, not Linear, not WiO, not Allen, nor Tersita, not al-Doug, not Sam, and all the others I've forgotten, not one, no one would benefit by it.
We would ALL benefit. They would be managed in a sensible manner, and contribute, in some way, to national Productivity.
ReplyDeleteBut they all benfit from the debt we owe the Chinese?
ReplyDeleteYou are losing it boobie, no one likes you, you should leave.
No one agrees with you, You are the lone socialist in the crew, but for the Den Mother, and she has an excuse, but you, you're a sun shine patriot that would kill young US soldiers to fulfill your false national pride.
You don't even qualify as a piece of shit.
That's well above your station in life.
This personal stuff needs to stop.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the invite, Wobbly. Haven't been to Singapore yet. Would like to see it. Maybe next trip. You been to Genting?
ReplyDeleteChilli crabs sounds good. I had curry crabs for lunch the day I flew back home from Penang.
ReplyDeleteTalk to the boobie, whit.
ReplyDeleteI try and try, to be polite, but there he goes, again.
Moron, hater, ad infinium ... the garbarge spews from his keyboard. Time aftr time.
Just not a polite land developer, our na-bob of negativism.
There's a big difference between a National Forest and Federal Land.
ReplyDeleteNo one is advocating selling off the jewels...not all of them anyway.
The two of you just need to quit reacting to one another. Ignore each other and try to refrain from provoking each other.
ReplyDeleteIt reflects poorly on the participants and the Bar.
Please.
Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo says the conservation groups' lawsuit challenging the Orion North timber sale is still before both the Alaska District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
ReplyDelete...
He and the conservation groups would like to see the Obama administration appeal a 2008 decision in the Wyoming District Court that struck down the 2001 Roadless Rule. This ruling has already been appealed by conservation groups.
And the conservationists would like to see the Obama administration dismiss an appeal to the Ninth Circuit brought by the Bush administration of a California District Court judgement striking down the Bush timber sale program. That move replaced the 2001 Roadless Rule with a program that required state governors to individually request roadless status for national forests in their states.
Jobs Trump Conservation
...been in Atlanta all day...
ReplyDeleteExample: a problem or exercise used to illustrate a principle or method.
Emulate: to strive to equal or excel, especially through imitation
The Thesaurus does not give “example” as a synonym for “emulate” or vice versa.
Granted this is merely a standard Thesaurus, not to be compared with the DR Zorro Master version for disambiguated novelty.
You do get an "A" for asininity, though.
Find that link yet, allen?
ReplyDeleteYep that's what I thought.
But a spokesman for Mrs. Blair told the broadcaster: “She has had to cancel because of a suspected case of swine flu.” The spokesman was not immediately reachable.
ReplyDelete...
Twenty-six people have died in England and three in Scotland, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said Thursday, in a sharp increase in the death toll from 17 earlier this week.
Some 55,000 new cases were reported last week in Britain, the worst hit country by the pandemic in Europe, the HPA added.
Swine Flu
Lots of people wearing surgical masks in all the airports I flew through.
ReplyDeleteI'm with boobie on the Federal lands issue. There is NO reason to expect that private interests would manage them for the public good. Tis natural to act in your own best interest and a private interest rarely aligns with public interest.
ReplyDeleteWe would ALL benefit. They would be managed in a sensible manner, and contribute, in some way, to national Productivity.
ReplyDeletebs ruf
It would be "No
Tresspassing" for Ruf.
That's all.
No more Ruf, on this land.
You just stay in the South.
Be a good silent guy.
Go away.
That, Rufus, is what it would be.
God Bless you
ReplyDeleteAsh!
NO TRESPASSING--STAY OUT!
ReplyDeleteDR said: That's what I thought.
ReplyDeleteReally?
You still haven't caught the joke?
That would be all she wrote.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you Ash!
ReplyDeleteAnd I never thought I might say such a thing!
heh, it's a funny world all right.
ReplyDeleteHere I was just a couple days ago, laughing to myself, how ratshitternamecaller had teamed up with Ash, and, a few days hence, Ash and I are on the same side about the National Forests!
heh, fancy that
You Remember in the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" How They Caught a Catfish Big as a Man?
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of disclosure, I spent a career in the USFS. It wasn't all a bad dream, and I'm proud of much of my work, and much the agency accomplished. But, there's no denying the fact that the once proud Forest Service has declined into a second class bureaucracy of toadying politically correct bureaucrats and tools of the environmentalists and liberal politicians.
ReplyDeleteThe decline had begun by the early 80's, and was accelerated with the election of William Jefferson Clinton and his naked politicization of the role of the Chief, and the meddling of that asshole Ag Undersecretary, Jim Lyons, in the direction being developed in the west to cope with the owl fiasco.
Having said all that, there were numerous moments of reflection when I concluded the withdrawal of certain prime timberlands into wilderness had a beneficial potential. That being to protect the stands from the agency incompetence and the political tug-of-war that characterized the congressional direction during the later decade of my tenure.
Regarding the "selling off of a natural treasure" mantra, it's a red herring. That won't happen, nor should it. There probably are federal holdings that could be transferred beneficially, on a piecemeal basis, to private ownership with no impact on anyone's "treasured heritage." That may happen in time, to everyone's advantage except the professional whiners of the environmental movement.
At the same time there are alternatives FOR intensive resource management upon the federal forests whose time has just not come. That time will arrive in a few decades when the kids mature enough to realize they better get crackin' on some sensible public resource policies, and they shitcan the nonsense of the present generation of know-nothing, liberal, politically correct, tree-hugging morons we've come to know and hate, those of us with any sense. In the meantime, the forest that don't burn will be left for future generations to use more wisely than we are capable of at present.
Secesh River
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome too, Ruf, anytime.
Lawsuits from conservation groups sparked the Northwest Forest Plan, which cut logging by more than 80 percent in national forests of Oregon, Washington and Northern California to protect habitat for the spotted owl and salmon.
ReplyDeleteTo settle a challenge to the Northwest Forest Plan by the timber industry, the Bush administration agreed to produce a new spotted owl recovery plan, review the critical habitat designation, and develop the Western Oregon Plan Revision.
The new spotted owl recovery plan, completed last year, argued that wildfire and the barred owl, an aggressive eastern species pushing spotted owls out of their territory, were greater threats to the spotted owl than logging.
Logging Plan
Regarding the "selling off of a natural treasure" mantra, it's a red herring. That won't happen, nor should it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, ain't gonna happen.
Let's put the best mind to it we can.
I personally, love our National Forests. Treat them right.
I personally think we ought to award...something...for the mention of "disambiguated novelty."
ReplyDeleteIt sounds good. And I have no idea what it means. A twofer.
If this mysterious lingo has infected the southern states, we are probably on a roll.
My dad worked for the Forest Service as a kid.
ReplyDeleteHe was on blister-rust detail in the woods around Priest.
I personally, love our National Forests. Treat them right.
ReplyDeleteA noble sentiment to be sure.
It may require them to be rescued from the tender mercies of the United States Forest Service, though.
My dad worked for the Forest Service as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt he would not recognize the service today, Sam. He's lucky to have experienced the old brown-boot, piss-fir-willy outfit. Their recruiting posters said, "Women and weaklings need not apply."
My cousin and I got a summer job trimming trees on the Cd'Alene National Forest.
ReplyDeleteMain thing I remember about it is, I was having a smoke, about 7:30 am in the morning, cooking some pancakes, and a black bear strolled through.
I personally think we ought to award...something...for the mention of "disambiguated novelty."...
ReplyDeleteTrish announces another contest, in her own inimitable style of "ambiguated novelty."
Prize is yet to be determined.
Decision of the judge is final (and has already been made).
Congratulations, Allen!
I just assumed it was Allen.
ReplyDeleteThe link to the summary execution authorization in the Geneva Accords, you've forgotten about that, already, allen?
ReplyDeleteFer shame. I thoughly thought you might of.
See, diverse views are available on a sunject. boobie has found an ally and strange bedfellow, in ash.
The object of selling off Federal assets is only partly to "manage" them better. The other and more pertinent reason is to raise cash and cut expenses.
The floor is open to other alternatives.
Ron Paul.
ReplyDeleteWhat a serious man.
I say we should invade
Syria, give the Iranians nuclear weapons, pull our troops out of everywhere, and sell off the National Forests to pay our debt to China.
Humpphh, that's what I think.
And, I expect to be taken seriously, too!
And did I mentions, hate the Jews.
Those "Wild" rivers aren't good for anything other than giving a few funnily-clad sissies some place to go smoke a little dope, and get laid.
ReplyDeleteA place for a couple of old fools to go and flyfish before they drown.
What they're really good for is "hydropower."
My ancestors settle along the St. Francis, and Black Rivers. Those rivers could support a small civilization. Plentiful food-fish, game, fertile river-made land, and transportation.
Those rivers are worth saving.
The rivers back in the back country are not power generating rivers, Rufus, I must disagree.
ReplyDeleteIt just ain't worth it.
The big ones, the Snake and the Columbia, are dammed out.
If we can go ahead and build some nuclear power plants, we might even be able to tear the old dams out, on the Columbia and the Snake, help the fish, the farmers, and light our lightbulbs all at the same time.
That's the simple truth of it.
These little streams out back, good for fishing, and getting one's head straight, but power generation?
No.
You could dam the
ReplyDeleteSecesh, but you wouldn't get much out of it, and, with all the alternatives we've got, you'd be a bastard to do so.
It's better left there, as it is, for Rufus, boobie, and Ash to have a fish, and get to know one another.
We might have more in common that we think.
Life and death, for instance.
Down the Mississippi delta town elects first black mayor -
ReplyDeleteEver spend time in Alligator, Rufus?
Those "Wild" rivers aren't good for anything other than giving a few funnily-clad sissies some place to go smoke a little dope, and get laid.
ReplyDeleteThat, Rufus, is total bullshit. And the first time I've been mad at you.
You want to go spend the rest of your days down at Doyle's, do so, Sir.
You can leave the Secesh alone, happily.
Ash and I will fish it.
That's a bunch of crap Rufus.
ReplyDeleteI give you this break, you've never seen the Secesh, or any of our great country here.
Beats Doyle's, I can tell ya.
Damn, Bob, did Rat leave?
ReplyDeleteHell, long as Rufus let's me make fun of Switchgrass unless and until, he's A-OK w/me!
We gotta have Ruf describe July weather:
ReplyDeleteWe had a hot one today, and I don't think I could make it in Mississippi no more.
Shower Time.
ReplyDelete)cold(
You, me and Ash, al-Doug, we might just get along well on the Secesh.
ReplyDeleteWho knows?
I think we just might.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A pair of powerful bombs exploded at two luxury hotels in an upscale Jakarta business district Friday, killing 9 and wounding at least 50, officials said.
ReplyDeleteThe blasts at the neighboring Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street.
The town’s facilities were substandard, he said, gesturing towards the humble town hall, where a “No Loitering” sign is nailed next to the door. “There isn’t even a phone or a fax machine in there.
ReplyDeleteHow can we communicate with the outside world and ask for things?" There was jubilation among the town’s blacks after Mr Brown’s victory.
At least the young man seems to have a pretty good handle on what Mayor's do. :)