OK, I had several readers of The Slow Bleed suggest this for the Friday Fluff blog. I have to say it does crack me up as well. Enjoy…
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The Dead Zone; Without Christopher Walken…
July 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
Ok, maybe not political, but I did find it interesting.
A “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico seems to be getting bigger. So named because of its inability to support marine life, the area contains oxygen-depleted water.
It is caused when salt water loses a large amount of oxygen, a condition known as “hypoxia.” When fresh water and salt water mix it can often keep oxygen from filtering through to the sea bottom (which is a problem for fish, shrimp, crabs, etc).
The last time the dead zone reached these levels was in 2002 off the coast of Louisiana – a record 7,900 square miles.
So, who is ready to start off-shore drilling?
Forget the Government Housing Bailout
July 24, 2008 Leave a Comment
When will we learn from our mistakes? Or perhaps better said, “how will we ever learn?”
The government, like an over-bearing parent, is going to swoop in and attempt to fix the current housing crisis as opposed to allowing the natural set of consequences to play out. This isn’t Monopoly, this is real money, and this “rescue legislation” is definitely a case where they are going to do considerably more damage than good.
I don’t even know where to start. Let’s see…
Provide Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an unlimited credit line to make housing loans. – Yea, and why not provide teenagers an unlimited credit card to use at the mall?
Provide bail out to an estimated 400,000 homeowners in trouble. - Don’t get me wrong, I feel very sorry for people losing their homes. Many were just hit with bad timing and 400,000 is not even a drop in the bucket of people in trouble. But many simply purchased too much house. When you can’t afford to make the (normal) amortized payments perhaps you should have been looking for a smaller house from the start.
Modernize the FHA and allow riskier loans. – You are kidding right? You did say “riskier?” Yea, that will solve it all. [Read more...]
Where have my Sports Heroes Gone?
July 23, 2008 Leave a Comment
Where are my sports heroes? Now that Brett Favre is retired (this may change later in the week) and Tiger Woods is out for the rest of the year I am not sure where to turn.
Don’t get me wrong; I was not a huge sports fan to begin with. I enjoy watching the final of just about anything…except maybe baseball.
I am just still not over all the baseball drug stuff. Yea, I know, all the sports probably have it. Sooner or later they will probably find out Danica Patrick has been taking prescription doses of Ginkgo Biloba.
I know the athletes do it to keep up with the other athletes but can’t we just hit the “reset” button and make them all go back to the beginning?
I don’t remember any of this stuff when I was a kid. Sure, we may have made Kool Aid that exceeded the recommendation sugar dosage but I don’t remember the adults having the same issue.
I think we could use, now more than ever, some great sport figures to follow around and divert our attention at this point in our economy.
Is it Real or Fake? Pretty Soon We Will Never Know!
July 22, 2008 8 Comments
I am way over getting emails from people that tell me not only who I should vote for, but are sure to include fake data to back up their opinions.
The sad part is the people sending the information don’t really know the information is fake and base what should have been sound decisions on this fake crud.
You know the ones I mean. This week, from no less than nine people, I got the one that basically says that McCain wants to lower taxes and Obama wants to increase them to 45%. Of course the email has no foundation in reality, but it does not matter, the damage is done.
Now, some of the people that sent it to me were smart. They either said, “Hey, don’t know if this is true or not” or “Can you verify this for me?” – most items can be verified in about 30 seconds on the Internet at a sites like snopes.com and others. Others just treat printed word as fact – a big mistake.
What started as a joke has increased to a real problem. How do you determine what is factual and what is not? The process does not stop at email; check out this personalized video a Slow Bleed reader sent me.
Is the Media Playing Favorites?
July 22, 2008 Leave a Comment
As Katie Couric and Charles Gibson board planes to take them to Jordan and Israel respectively, the Republicans are saying “What about us?”
The Republicans have been increasingly vocal about the lack of coverage McCain is getting versus Obama.
“The question really needs to be posed: Is this type of coverage fair?” said Rep. Eric Cantor. “This is nothing but a political stunt.”
Of course the media always plays a big part in the election and it is not the first time they played favorites but they also tend to go with the interesting story. Obama is overseas in Iraq, McCain is in…hey, where is he anyway?
The media will attempt to level the playing field in the coming weeks by throwing something McCains way – I think a guest spot on American Gladiators or something.
You can’t manipulate the media if they are not focusing a camera on you!
Time to put Money Under the Mattress?
July 21, 2008 Leave a Comment
I go away for a two week vacation and all hell breaks loose. I have some blog catching up to do!
First off…
Federal regulators seized the California lender, IndyMac Bank last Friday. IndyMac Bank was one of the largest savings and loans. There are several dozen other banks on the “watch list” and investors are speculating on “who is next” – (does any of this sound familiar to anyone else?).
The Wall Street Journal reported we could expect more banks to fail in the coming months.
So, what else in on the table?
- Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac are in trouble as the Bush administration tries to figure out what to do.
- The price of oil is still rising.
- Bills from the war are coming in.
- Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are expected to report multibillion-dollar write-offs this week.
Of course with every crisis there is an opportunity. That opportunity could be to learn your canning and preserving food skills.
Fine, I suppose this is where you look for some witty insights to my mind. A "bio" of sorts. Here is the deal... I ride motorcycles, smoke cigars, golf, kayak, fly, race my car through the mountains, write (a lot), and travel extensively. I am almost old enough not to care what other people think about me...almost. ~Godfadr
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