Recommend #3, about the fear in the property market.....and #11....unusual and powerful video.....
1/ Glenn Beck is in Washington today....Bob Herbert column on why the disgusting Beck isn't fit to lick the boots of MLK.....
Beck is a provocateur who likes to play with matches in the tinderbox of racial and ethnic confrontation. He seems oblivious to the real danger of his execrable behavior. He famously described President Obama as a man “who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”
He is an integral part of the vicious effort by the Tea Party and other elements of the right wing to portray Mr. Obama as somehow alien, a strange figure who is separate and apart from — outside of — ordinary American life.
2/ The Oligarchs of Wall Street
Wall Street is throwing money at the Republican party because the Obama administration has dared to try to rein in the excesses [like crashing the world economy] of the financial giants, so they are now pissed and want their toadies in office.
Thanks to the Supreme Court [purchased by the oligarchy] the corporations can now spend hundreds of millions to defeat any politician who will vote 'the wrong way".
Between the Koch brothers, the Wall Street boys and our mass of very stupid and easily manipulated voters......the middle class is toast that's browning nicely.....
“indiscriminate attacks by political leaders against anything that moves in the world of finance.” Government efforts to “take over and run” the economy through more regulations, he warned, threatened to ruin the United States’ standing as the world leader in finance.
As the head of a $17 billion hedge fund, Mr. Singer, a self-described Barry Goldwater conservative who is 66, is using his financial might to try to change those policies. He has become one of the biggest bankrollers of Republican causes, giving more than $4 million of his money and raising millions more through fund-raisers he hosts for like-minded candidates who often share his distaste for what they view as governmental over-meddling in the financial industry.
3/ Property and Real Estate - 2 articles
"The Housing Market is Paralysed With Fear"
One of the best summaries of where we are in housing I have ever read, and Joe Nocera nails it all - every party to a property transaction is afraid - the buyer, the seller, the lender, the government and investors...all frightened. And rightly so......some sample quotes......
Essentially, every participant in the housing market has a reason to be afraid. And that fear is paralyzing.
The prospective buyer, for instance, has two good rationales to fear buying a new home. One is the unemployment rate.
The seller, meanwhile, doesn’t want to face the fact that his or her home is too richly priced, and won’t sell at a more realistic price — which may well be below his or her mortgage debt.
Chastened by the excesses of the bubble, mortgage lenders have swung hard in the other direction, becoming excessively, almost insanely, conservative. They demand high FICO scores.
And given the enormous losses Fannie and Freddie were saddled with during the financial crisis, they are in no mood to take risks, not even on borrowers who are normally considered creditworthy.
It’s even become nearly impossible for well-heeled investors to buy rental properties.
Excellent, excellent article. A primer on where we are right now.....if you own your home, read this one....
The second column is the reasons why you should buy your house now....a rational, logical case for the long term benefits of home ownership.....it's actually consistent with the "fear" article.....explaining why you should conquer your fear and buy for the long term....
But as with stocks and the weather, it is dangerous to assume any certainty in the housing market. And by wallowing too much in the misery of others, people looking for a new place to live run the risk of thinking every home purchase will end in regret, at least financially.
4/ Commercial - the Cami Secret Boob Apron.....very funny [note - bad language]. This is, incredibly enough, a real commercial....with a subversive new voice over track....2 minutes....
Comedian Nick Stevens has made a parody in the style of Jaboody Dubs, an it couldn't be more accurate. He lays into the "boob apron" or "titkerchief" and wonders why women would want to hide their "lady prizes" from the world. He also mocks the hilariously fake office where the "titkerchief's" benefits are demonstrated.
5/ Pakistan's Flood
Imagine the Mississippi overflowing it's banks and flooding the entire midwest for hundreds of miles in either direction, crippling the breadbasket of the US....well that's what has happened to Pakistan.
And it's still raining......hope those nukes are safe and dry......
....they despaired that the nation’s worst natural calamity had ruined just about every physical strand that knit this country together — roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, electricity and communications.
The destruction could set Pakistan back many years, if not decades, further weaken its feeble civilian administration and add to the burdens on its military. It seems certain to distract from American requests for Pakistan to battle Taliban insurgents, who threatened foreign aid workers delivering flood relief on Thursday. It is already disrupting vital supply lines to American forces in Afghanistan.
6/ Facebook pages from History....very funny.
Can't give you a sample, but just look at the first entry from Abraham Lincoln........
7/ Florida politics - it's Alan Grayson [D] vs Daniel Webster [R] in Lake County's hot congressional race. But one of Webster's sponsors is a little controversial....like being a neo-Nazi?
Hmmm.....might not hurt him in Lake County.....
Republican primary voters on Tuesday picked Daniel Webster to challenge freshman Rep. Alan Grayson in the Orlando swing district being watched nationally. Webster, in his Orlando Sentinel voter guide, lists David Barton among his prominent endorsers.
Barton has twice addressed white-supremacist organization with ties to neo-Nazis, but both times has done so accidentally, he says. He has also been a leader in the movement to rewrite American history to remove Civil Rights leaders and knock down the wall separating church from state, arguing that it is a myth. He led the recent effort to rewrite Texas textbooks to describe America as a Christian nation.
8/ The Air Guatemala crash - Guatemalan authorities have recovered the flight recorder parrot in an effort to find out the cause of the disaster....incredible footage.....2 minutes.....in Spanish with subtitles.....even the 15 second commercial is funny...
9/ Jeb Bush - well well, look what the Jebster's up to in the hiatus before he runs for President in 2012.
He's taking Florida voters to task for passing the class size amendment [how DARE you] in our desperate attempt to improve the abysmal state of Florida's public schools.....
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told Utah officials on Tuesday that there's little evidence to link smaller class sizes and student achievement.
"I do not know of any research that suggests that lower-class size has any impact on student learning until you get down to a significantly lower number," Bush said. "And the research there is very scant."
OK readers - do we believe Jeb? Do we scoff at the idea smaller class sizes are better for students? Jeb may be starting to believe his own bullshit....
In 2002, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment capping class sizes that Bush — who was governor from 1999 to 2007 — vigorously opposed. Previously, class size averages were calculated at the schoolwide level.
The toughest requirements of the Florida amendment goes into effect this week.
"Every class in every school in every district in the state has to meet that mandate," Bush said. "You can think of the logistical challenge. ... It's going to be a nightmare."
Bush is working to get Florida voters to approve an amendment on this year's ballot that would loosen the class-size requirements
10/ Movie reviews
The Last Exorcism - sounds reasonably good......
The Devil is in the entrails in “The Last Exorcism,” an unusually restrained and genuinely eerie little movie perched at the intersection of faith, folklore and female puberty.
“The Last Exorcism” is grounded in strong acting (with a notably unsettling performance from Caleb Landry Jones as Nell’s hovering brother) and carefully doled out shocks. Smart but never smirky, the script (by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland) doesn’t swing for the fences, relying on dry humor and an accumulating atmosphere of psychological dysfunction.
Mesrine - you will never see this movie - it's in French, four hours long but if you're interested in the movies this is a cool review.....or netflix it....
Vincent Cassel, the cocky, snake-eyed French actor with a prizefighter’s mug is so charismatic in “Mesrine,” a four-hour biography of the notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine, that you can’t take your eyes off him. Mr. Cassel’s monumental performance fuses the cobralike menace of the young Robert Mitchum with the whipsaw, shape-shifting (from wiry to bulbous) volatility of classic Robert De Niro, and lightens it with a cat burglar’s grace and agility.
11/ Kanye West - Power
Quote - "Kanye stands motionless and majestic, surrounded by gorgeous angels and demons as an empire crashes around him. Dagger wielding attackers lunge at his neck, while a sword swoops through a halo above."
Actually an amazing video - you have never seen anything like it.....90 seconds.
Todays video - 5 Ameriquest commercials, including the classic "I'm her daddy".
Todays medical joke
A mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a Harley motorcycle when he spotted a well-known heart surgeon in his shop.
The surgeon was there, waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his bike.
The mechanic shouted across the garage, "Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?"
The surgeon a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanicworking on the motorcycle.
The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, "So Doc, look at this engine.
I open its heart, take valves out, fix 'em, put 'em back in, and when I finish, it works just like new.
So how come I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?"
The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic...
The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic...
"Try doing it with the engine running."
Todays oldies joke
I got a new stick of deodorant today. The instructions said: Remove cap and push up bottom. I can barely walk, but whenever I fart the room smells lovely. |
Todays marrieds joke
The husband had just finished reading a new book entitled, "YOU CAN BE
THE MAN OF YOUR HOUSE"
He stormed to his wife in the kitchen and announced, "From now on, you
need to know that I am the man of this house and my word is Law. You
will prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my
meal, you will serve me a sumptuous dessert.
After dinner, you are going to go upstairs with me and we will have the
kind of sex that I want. Afterwards, you are going to draw me a bath so
I can relax. You will wash my back and towel me dry and bring me my
robe. Then, you will massage my feet and hands. Then tomorrow, guess
who's going to dress me and comb my hair?"
The wife replied, "The fucking funeral director would be my first
guess."
THE MAN OF YOUR HOUSE"
He stormed to his wife in the kitchen and announced, "From now on, you
need to know that I am the man of this house and my word is Law. You
will prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my
meal, you will serve me a sumptuous dessert.
After dinner, you are going to go upstairs with me and we will have the
kind of sex that I want. Afterwards, you are going to draw me a bath so
I can relax. You will wash my back and towel me dry and bring me my
robe. Then, you will massage my feet and hands. Then tomorrow, guess
who's going to dress me and comb my hair?"
The wife replied, "The fucking funeral director would be my first
guess."
