There was this guy named Bernard Madoff. Very smart guy. Spent his life in the World of investments and finance. He made a lot of money. For himself. For other people.
One of the problems guys like this have is they have been successful for so long, they can't believe when things start to go wrong for them and then keep going wrong. This guy had billions invested for other people. He was returning 8-10%, even over the last couple of years. I gotta tell ya. Anybody that could do that pretty much had to be reading God's mail.
I'm sure when he started to declare profits that weren't there it was with the best of intentions. He felt he could recoup the losses he had suffered and make a comeback. It might even have been something he had done before and it probably worked that time. I don't believe Bernard started out to steal anybodies money. I don't think that he has a boatload of ill gotten gains stashed in Swiss vaults.
The problem is that 50 billion dollars is gone. I don't think he was managing any more than 20 billion. They let these hedge fund guys leverage pretty heavily. So it's the banks that lent him the money that will take the biggest bath.
That's you folks.
I think there are a lot more bad boys like Bernard still out there, wondering what to do and when it will all fall apart.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Bush on National Security
President Bush, speaking to the Corps of Cadets at West Point, emphasized that the US must stay on the offensive against al Qaeda. These are wise words but what has this jackass ever done to go on the offensive against al Qaeda?
He has not pursued al Qaeda itself. He has not pursued it's leaders, political or tactical. He has not pusued those organizations or individuals that fund al Qaeda. The reason is that many of these individuals and organizations are his friends and supporters. He has strong personal, family and political ties to the Wahhabi community in the Gulf States. All al Qaeda activity originates in the Wahhabi community within the oil rich Gulf States. Bush's whole War on Terror is a web of lies and misdirection.
Bush is a traitor and coward with no appetite for conflict with the terrorist threat that we face. His whole Presidency proves this. He has done more damage to our national security than any President in our history. He has not kept us safe. He has not engaged our enemies. He has not been truthful with the American people.
He has not pursued al Qaeda itself. He has not pursued it's leaders, political or tactical. He has not pusued those organizations or individuals that fund al Qaeda. The reason is that many of these individuals and organizations are his friends and supporters. He has strong personal, family and political ties to the Wahhabi community in the Gulf States. All al Qaeda activity originates in the Wahhabi community within the oil rich Gulf States. Bush's whole War on Terror is a web of lies and misdirection.
Bush is a traitor and coward with no appetite for conflict with the terrorist threat that we face. His whole Presidency proves this. He has done more damage to our national security than any President in our history. He has not kept us safe. He has not engaged our enemies. He has not been truthful with the American people.
Monday, December 08, 2008
FOCA
The great fear among the Catholic Cardinals and Bishops, conservative clergy and fundo fascist televangelists in this country, is that after the next Congress convenes the Freedom of Choice Act will be passed and President Obama will sign it into law.
There is no good reason why this shouldn't happen. Democrats needn't fear that anyone will be alienated by this action and cease to vote for them. The country is already polarized on this issue and abortion is the litmus test by which voters on the right judge all political candidates. The right has already done everything it can to demonize those on the pro choice side of the issue. Even so, people who don't believe in abortion and this is the majority of Americans, believe it is a personal choice, not an act to be punished by punitive laws.
The damage is done. Everybody has already chosen sides. I say, pass the son of a bitch. Then listen to the pigs squeal.
There is no good reason why this shouldn't happen. Democrats needn't fear that anyone will be alienated by this action and cease to vote for them. The country is already polarized on this issue and abortion is the litmus test by which voters on the right judge all political candidates. The right has already done everything it can to demonize those on the pro choice side of the issue. Even so, people who don't believe in abortion and this is the majority of Americans, believe it is a personal choice, not an act to be punished by punitive laws.
The damage is done. Everybody has already chosen sides. I say, pass the son of a bitch. Then listen to the pigs squeal.
I Love Celebrity Rehab
I don't think Drew Pinsky is much of a psychiatrist. He is a great showman though. He gets washed up Hollywood and media types with totally fucked up lives, to check into his rehab facility in Pasadena and tapes them interacting during a three week detox and therapeutic intervention.
Everybody that watches it can come away feeling good about themselves. If you are not a complete loser, you are guaranteed to feel superior to these poor devils. If you are hitting bottom, with absolutely no prospects, you can identify with the inmates and at least feel comradeship with somebody that wasn't always a complete loser. The action is superior. It's like Three Stooges shorts, only the damage they do to each other and themselves is appallingly real.
There is the added attraction that everybody can hate the completely insightless and ineffective Dr Drew and his cretinous staff of therapists, all of whom are themselves only one bad night away from a loveless marriage to the crack pipe.
If you don't watch this show, you should. It will brighten up your affect. It's on VH-1, all the time.
Everybody that watches it can come away feeling good about themselves. If you are not a complete loser, you are guaranteed to feel superior to these poor devils. If you are hitting bottom, with absolutely no prospects, you can identify with the inmates and at least feel comradeship with somebody that wasn't always a complete loser. The action is superior. It's like Three Stooges shorts, only the damage they do to each other and themselves is appallingly real.
There is the added attraction that everybody can hate the completely insightless and ineffective Dr Drew and his cretinous staff of therapists, all of whom are themselves only one bad night away from a loveless marriage to the crack pipe.
If you don't watch this show, you should. It will brighten up your affect. It's on VH-1, all the time.
They Don't Have The Fuckin' Balls.
A lot of people hope that the Supreme Court will rule on whether or not Barry O qualifies under the Constitution to serve as President of the United States. I wouldn't mind it myself if they tried to tell the majority of the American people that the man they elected to be President couldn't serve. That would be great theater.
It's not going to happen. The fundo halfwits are always whining about the liberal courts. The fact is that seven out of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by the last four Republican Presidents. It isn't that they aren't conservative. They have the same problem as most conservative American men. They are all cowardly panzies with tiny little, vestigial testicles. Ruthie Bader wipes the floor with them and makes them beg for more.They aren't going to take up the case of Obama's qualifications to be President, any more than they are going to challenge the validity of Rowe vs Wade.
They don't have the fuckin' balls. They don't now. They never will.
It's not going to happen. The fundo halfwits are always whining about the liberal courts. The fact is that seven out of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by the last four Republican Presidents. It isn't that they aren't conservative. They have the same problem as most conservative American men. They are all cowardly panzies with tiny little, vestigial testicles. Ruthie Bader wipes the floor with them and makes them beg for more.They aren't going to take up the case of Obama's qualifications to be President, any more than they are going to challenge the validity of Rowe vs Wade.
They don't have the fuckin' balls. They don't now. They never will.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Caroline Kennedy
Everybody seems to think that Caroline Kennedy would make a great next Senator for the State of New York. I don't think so.
I don't think so for the same reason that GW Bush was the worst President ever. She has no experience with real people or real life. She has been sheltered from the earliest age. She has everything a person could want. Anything she wants, she gets. She is no doubt a great deal smarter than George Bush. She doesn't seem to have the psychological damage or substance abuse problems that he has. She would no doubt be much better suited to high office than he is. At the end of the day though, they are the same. No real experience, empathy or knowledge of what it is like to be an American, make your way in life, earn a living, relate to people as who you really are. The Senator from the State of New York is going to be different than the one from South Carolina or North Dakota but not that different.
A lot of New Yorkers revere the Kennedys. They might be proud to elect Caroline to the Senate. They would not be well served.
I don't think so for the same reason that GW Bush was the worst President ever. She has no experience with real people or real life. She has been sheltered from the earliest age. She has everything a person could want. Anything she wants, she gets. She is no doubt a great deal smarter than George Bush. She doesn't seem to have the psychological damage or substance abuse problems that he has. She would no doubt be much better suited to high office than he is. At the end of the day though, they are the same. No real experience, empathy or knowledge of what it is like to be an American, make your way in life, earn a living, relate to people as who you really are. The Senator from the State of New York is going to be different than the one from South Carolina or North Dakota but not that different.
A lot of New Yorkers revere the Kennedys. They might be proud to elect Caroline to the Senate. They would not be well served.
It Was Always about Sex and the Subjugation of Women
In late 19th century America, the cultural dialogue was about whether women should have the vote and independent legal status. The ability to own property and manage their finances independent of their fathers or husbands.
After that, it was whether women should be able to function in society outside of the family. Going unaccompanied in the public forum. Being independently employed. Marriage to a partner of her own choosing. Participating in higher education.
It wasn't until the 1920s that reproductive rights became an issue. Condoms had been introduced to American society by the military in World War I, because of the high rates of venereal disease among troops frequenting prostitutes. Birth control devices, for their own sake, were not legal in any form in this country until 1936 and then only for married women, with a doctors prescription. It would be decades yet before birth control would be freely available to all. Margaret Sanger and her physican husband were outlaws.
Fundamentalist Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in America, most particularly, have actively opposed every single effort by women to get out from under the subjugation imposed upon them by society, from the discretionary beating of women within the family to the active role of women in the Church hierarchy. The Church is inflexible but not stupid. They never admit defeat but they do move on.
In the 1950s, after divorce had become a common fixture of American Family life, it was a battleground the church fought upon. In the 1960's, when huge Catholic families became an anomaly instead of the rule, they vigorously opposed birth control. In the 1970s, as Catholic families stopped sending their young boys off to catechism, parochial schools, and into service as alter boys, in recognition of a growing culture of homosexual pedophilia in the priesthood, the church refused to admit there was a problem and railed instead against permissive parenting.
By the 1980s, the church was too busy maintaining its image of times past to notice that young Catholic families, having developed cultural and sexual lives independent of the church were reclaiming the local churches and schools for themselves, walling the priests off in their rectories and allowing them out only for ceremonial purposes. Parents were present in the schoolyards and classrooms at all times, to protect their young and began to dictate curriculum and school rules. Church activities and charities were planned, scheduled and administered according to the direction of the laity. Nobody consulted the priests. Not for leadership, spiritual or otherwise. Not for personal counselling or lifestyle advice. It was then that children of the previous generation came out and began to tell their stories of abuse. As the legal and moral judgements against the Church began to pile up, the clergy was driven further out of any meaningful contribution to mainstream life in America. Nuns under the age of eighty have almost completely disappeared from the American scene as women distance themselves from a Church that finds no value in them. Priests are far fewer and rarely share the values of the communities they serve, as families encourage their brightest sons to find secular vocations.
While they haven't changed their official stance on anything, the Church doesn't talk much about premarital sex, divorce, or birth control anymore. They are decreasingly active against abortion, the law of the land now for thirty five years. They are focusing on euthanasia and gay marriage. These are not issues many of the laity expend much energy on, especially those engaged in increasingly long, active, heterosexual lives.
The Church will soon have to come up with something better than this. They might want to think about how the clergy can re enter the daily lives of the Catholic community in a meaningful way, rather than sit alone in their rectories.
After that, it was whether women should be able to function in society outside of the family. Going unaccompanied in the public forum. Being independently employed. Marriage to a partner of her own choosing. Participating in higher education.
It wasn't until the 1920s that reproductive rights became an issue. Condoms had been introduced to American society by the military in World War I, because of the high rates of venereal disease among troops frequenting prostitutes. Birth control devices, for their own sake, were not legal in any form in this country until 1936 and then only for married women, with a doctors prescription. It would be decades yet before birth control would be freely available to all. Margaret Sanger and her physican husband were outlaws.
Fundamentalist Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in America, most particularly, have actively opposed every single effort by women to get out from under the subjugation imposed upon them by society, from the discretionary beating of women within the family to the active role of women in the Church hierarchy. The Church is inflexible but not stupid. They never admit defeat but they do move on.
In the 1950s, after divorce had become a common fixture of American Family life, it was a battleground the church fought upon. In the 1960's, when huge Catholic families became an anomaly instead of the rule, they vigorously opposed birth control. In the 1970s, as Catholic families stopped sending their young boys off to catechism, parochial schools, and into service as alter boys, in recognition of a growing culture of homosexual pedophilia in the priesthood, the church refused to admit there was a problem and railed instead against permissive parenting.
By the 1980s, the church was too busy maintaining its image of times past to notice that young Catholic families, having developed cultural and sexual lives independent of the church were reclaiming the local churches and schools for themselves, walling the priests off in their rectories and allowing them out only for ceremonial purposes. Parents were present in the schoolyards and classrooms at all times, to protect their young and began to dictate curriculum and school rules. Church activities and charities were planned, scheduled and administered according to the direction of the laity. Nobody consulted the priests. Not for leadership, spiritual or otherwise. Not for personal counselling or lifestyle advice. It was then that children of the previous generation came out and began to tell their stories of abuse. As the legal and moral judgements against the Church began to pile up, the clergy was driven further out of any meaningful contribution to mainstream life in America. Nuns under the age of eighty have almost completely disappeared from the American scene as women distance themselves from a Church that finds no value in them. Priests are far fewer and rarely share the values of the communities they serve, as families encourage their brightest sons to find secular vocations.
While they haven't changed their official stance on anything, the Church doesn't talk much about premarital sex, divorce, or birth control anymore. They are decreasingly active against abortion, the law of the land now for thirty five years. They are focusing on euthanasia and gay marriage. These are not issues many of the laity expend much energy on, especially those engaged in increasingly long, active, heterosexual lives.
The Church will soon have to come up with something better than this. They might want to think about how the clergy can re enter the daily lives of the Catholic community in a meaningful way, rather than sit alone in their rectories.
The illicit Amish organic food co-op trade
You gotta read this to get a feel for what the Bush administration feels is the proper use of deadly force.
Mow them Amish food traffickers down!
Mow them Amish food traffickers down!
Friday, December 05, 2008
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Oil is cheap right now. If you listen to a lot of the Business news pundits, it's going to get a lot cheaper. In a few months, the Arabs may pay you to take oil off their hands. We hear about over production and demand destruction.
Don't kid yourself. When oil was at its all time high just a little over 4 months ago, production had been ratcheted up by oil producers and huge quantities were still being bought up and held out of the consumption pipeline for purposes of speculation. As the price of oil has collapsed, all that oil came on the market. There was nobody to buy all the increased production and speculative holdings. The result has been a tremendous oil glut. This does not mean that the World is using a lot less oil. The World might indeed be using a little less oil right now but World wide depression or not, oil production is in a long term decreasing trend and oil consumption remains in a long term increasing trend. The current glut of oil will be worked through. When doesn't matter. It will happen. It may seem like they are giving it away for a while. Enjoy it while it lasts.
$200 dollar a barrel oil will happen and sooner than you think.
Don't kid yourself. When oil was at its all time high just a little over 4 months ago, production had been ratcheted up by oil producers and huge quantities were still being bought up and held out of the consumption pipeline for purposes of speculation. As the price of oil has collapsed, all that oil came on the market. There was nobody to buy all the increased production and speculative holdings. The result has been a tremendous oil glut. This does not mean that the World is using a lot less oil. The World might indeed be using a little less oil right now but World wide depression or not, oil production is in a long term decreasing trend and oil consumption remains in a long term increasing trend. The current glut of oil will be worked through. When doesn't matter. It will happen. It may seem like they are giving it away for a while. Enjoy it while it lasts.
$200 dollar a barrel oil will happen and sooner than you think.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
One Down
I lost a tooth today, too rotten and brittle to be saved. Cheerfully chiseled out of my jaw by a woman of mixed Hispanic and Asian heritage, easily young enough to be my daughter.
When we are young, we lose our first set of teeth. We are proud when this happens, for it is part of a coming adulthood. It is not so deranging as the storm of puberty. When we begin to lose our second set, it is also the signal of a coming transition. It may be a joyous one to others but I do not regard it so.
The bleeding, blinding headache, swelling and raw throbbing in my jaw are tolerable because they demonstrate that I'm not dead yet and may live to endure the loss of many more of my bodily constituents before they finally flame into cinders, what mindlessly little of me will be left.
When we are young, we lose our first set of teeth. We are proud when this happens, for it is part of a coming adulthood. It is not so deranging as the storm of puberty. When we begin to lose our second set, it is also the signal of a coming transition. It may be a joyous one to others but I do not regard it so.
The bleeding, blinding headache, swelling and raw throbbing in my jaw are tolerable because they demonstrate that I'm not dead yet and may live to endure the loss of many more of my bodily constituents before they finally flame into cinders, what mindlessly little of me will be left.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Marquis De Bernanke
I'm not sure I have this totally correct. If others have more insight into what is proposed, please chime in and enlighten those of us in the dark.
Normally, when introducing money into the system, the Federal Reserve Bank tries to maintain some balance. They may sell bonds to those entities that have acquired money. They then have that money to reintroduce into the system or retire. They pay interest on the bonds they have sold. They may allow the entities that hold the bonds to lend money against them as collateral, possibly many times over. They may give banks money in return for indebtedness and then let the banks use this money to make loans, not once but many times. This kind of leveraging of Federal Reserve funds, provides the system with liquidity and leaves the Fed with some control over how much money is entering the system and for how long and for what purposes.
What Bernanke is planning to do now is to purchase, at market value, US Treasury bonds already issued and outstanding within the World financial community. This would have the effect of introducing large amounts of liquidity into the system. It would maintain confidence in US Treasury bonds, insofar as there was any question that they were not easily convertible to cash. It might also decrease the availability of safe haven, government insured, investment vehicles. It is printing money, pure and simple. Then using that money to retire government debt. This would be inflationary and undermining of the value of the dollar, in the extreme.
This may be exactly what he wants. If you have been a saver rather than a spender, you will be sadly disappointed with these actions. This is what they do in Zimbabwe.
Normally, when introducing money into the system, the Federal Reserve Bank tries to maintain some balance. They may sell bonds to those entities that have acquired money. They then have that money to reintroduce into the system or retire. They pay interest on the bonds they have sold. They may allow the entities that hold the bonds to lend money against them as collateral, possibly many times over. They may give banks money in return for indebtedness and then let the banks use this money to make loans, not once but many times. This kind of leveraging of Federal Reserve funds, provides the system with liquidity and leaves the Fed with some control over how much money is entering the system and for how long and for what purposes.
What Bernanke is planning to do now is to purchase, at market value, US Treasury bonds already issued and outstanding within the World financial community. This would have the effect of introducing large amounts of liquidity into the system. It would maintain confidence in US Treasury bonds, insofar as there was any question that they were not easily convertible to cash. It might also decrease the availability of safe haven, government insured, investment vehicles. It is printing money, pure and simple. Then using that money to retire government debt. This would be inflationary and undermining of the value of the dollar, in the extreme.
This may be exactly what he wants. If you have been a saver rather than a spender, you will be sadly disappointed with these actions. This is what they do in Zimbabwe.
The Dilemma Of Democratic India
At the time of the partition of India, in 1947, even though large numbers of people were uprooted from their homes, India and Pakistan each had about 15% minority populations of Hindus and Muslims, respectively. Both countries promised secular democracy. Both countries promised to respect the rights of minorities.
India at least still offers a secular democracy on paper. It still has a large Muslim minority, more than 150 million. The largest population of Muslims outside of Indonesia. Muslims in India may not get all the breaks. A lot of people in India don't get many breaks.
Pakistan has less than 2% Hindus in their population, at this point. Not that many of Pakistan's Hindus emigrated out. I wonder where they went? If you're not a Muslim in Pakistan, you don't really have any civil rights. You can't vote. If somebody kills you and rapes your wife and daughter, nobody will prosecute them. Hell, if you are Muslim and you kill your own wife and daughter, nobody will prosecute you. Pakistan has been in an undeclared border war with India for most of the last 60 years. Only India's restraint has kept it from becoming the World's first Thermo Nuclear War.
The United States has always been very friendly with Pakistan. We give them aide. We sell them weapons. We cosign international agreements.
We have never been friendly with India. We don't consider them friends at all. We would be very unhappy if India went to war with Pakistan.
Does not Pakistan pose exactly the type of Islamic terrorist threat to India that the cringing dog Bush claimed that Iraq and Afghanistan posed to us? In India's case, it's even true.
India at least still offers a secular democracy on paper. It still has a large Muslim minority, more than 150 million. The largest population of Muslims outside of Indonesia. Muslims in India may not get all the breaks. A lot of people in India don't get many breaks.
Pakistan has less than 2% Hindus in their population, at this point. Not that many of Pakistan's Hindus emigrated out. I wonder where they went? If you're not a Muslim in Pakistan, you don't really have any civil rights. You can't vote. If somebody kills you and rapes your wife and daughter, nobody will prosecute them. Hell, if you are Muslim and you kill your own wife and daughter, nobody will prosecute you. Pakistan has been in an undeclared border war with India for most of the last 60 years. Only India's restraint has kept it from becoming the World's first Thermo Nuclear War.
The United States has always been very friendly with Pakistan. We give them aide. We sell them weapons. We cosign international agreements.
We have never been friendly with India. We don't consider them friends at all. We would be very unhappy if India went to war with Pakistan.
Does not Pakistan pose exactly the type of Islamic terrorist threat to India that the cringing dog Bush claimed that Iraq and Afghanistan posed to us? In India's case, it's even true.
Monday, December 01, 2008
PONZI
Months ago I warned that with the advent of hard times we could be assured of seeing a resurgence of pyramid schemes. As usual I was half assed wrong and half assed right.
There have not been large numbers of people coming out of the woodwork to scam their fellows. Instead the biggest Ponzi scheme in American history is taking place. The perpetrators are the biggest corporations in America. They have enrolled every tax paying American as their victim, using a corrupt and debauched Congressional and Executive branch of the Federal government.
There is no way for even the wiliest victim to protect him or her self. The take will reach the hundreds of trillions and leave us all ruined.
There have not been large numbers of people coming out of the woodwork to scam their fellows. Instead the biggest Ponzi scheme in American history is taking place. The perpetrators are the biggest corporations in America. They have enrolled every tax paying American as their victim, using a corrupt and debauched Congressional and Executive branch of the Federal government.
There is no way for even the wiliest victim to protect him or her self. The take will reach the hundreds of trillions and leave us all ruined.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Barry's BC
I love the Obama birth certificate controversy. Who knows, maybe Barry never had a birth certificate. All of my grand parents were born in this country, none of them had a birth certificate. Maybe in 1961, in Hawaii, they didn't think the darker babies needed birth certificates. Barry's mom was pretty counter cultural, maybe she had the boy at home and never bothered to register his birth. We used to deliver babies on the commune, 35 years ago, with just the childbirth instructional chapter, from the Whole Earth catalog. Never had a problem. No drugs. No C-Sections. No episiotomies. We had a girl that was really good at ironing. Nary a rip or tear. No birth certificates. You are not legally required to register a birth. You can be President without one.
At the end of the day, there may be no way to prove, beyond a doubt, that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Since he was born here, there's no way to prove he wasn't. Even if Barack has a birth certificate somewhere, he should never release it. I love the way this controversy unhinges the fundofucknuts. They should be able to handle these things better, bathing in the spirit of Jesus so much, the way they do. You'd think it would bring a little serenity into their lives. We all the children of the Lord, no matter where we are born or to who.
Hal-a-lou-yah, Baby!
At the end of the day, there may be no way to prove, beyond a doubt, that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Since he was born here, there's no way to prove he wasn't. Even if Barack has a birth certificate somewhere, he should never release it. I love the way this controversy unhinges the fundofucknuts. They should be able to handle these things better, bathing in the spirit of Jesus so much, the way they do. You'd think it would bring a little serenity into their lives. We all the children of the Lord, no matter where we are born or to who.
Hal-a-lou-yah, Baby!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Boom Tube
Television programing was being invented as the early baby boomers were growing up. There were a lot of us and so there were a lot of shows for us. Most of them were pretty weak.
Romper Room totally sucked. I am convinced that marijuana cigarettes got called doobees in response to the insipid Romper ladies exhortations to do be a Do Bee, while looking through her magic mirror at all of us. The less said about Captain Kangaroo and Mister Green Jeans, the better.
We got a lot of retreaded serial Westerns from the Saturday matinees of the '30s, '40s and early '50s. I liked those. Gene Autrey and Hopalong Cassidy were pretty faggy but John Wayne was good, whether he was on his own, part of the Three Mequiteers or teamed up with wily, old Gabby Hayes. My favorite was a cowboy star named Sunset Carson. He never had a sidekick. I pretended I was his sidekick and learning to be a crusading range rider. Cowboy Bob Steele, the Yiddish Avenger was really good too. He was only about five feet tall and mowed down the big bad men with his tiny fists, what little kid wouldn't like that.
The local kid shows would never fly today. The budgets were low, the scripts rudimentary and the talent pool shallow. There was this one guy named Engineer Bill, who had a huge electric train set up. There were always a lot of closeup shots of his trains going into and coming out of deep, dark tunnels, accompanied by loud train whistle sound effects. He would have a little boy on each day as a guest. The little boy was always an electric train enthusiast. Engineer Bill and the boy would examine each others equipment and the boy got to run engineer Bill's big locomotive around the track a few times. Then they played a milk drinking game called Red Light/Green Light. I'm sure many's the boy who reenacted that game years later when remembering his visit to Engineer Bill's Round House, only with something a lot stronger than milk. Something bad happened one day on the set of Engineer Bill's Round House. The show was never on again and Engineer Bill retired from the entertainment industry and sold insurance somewhere in the Valley, for the rest of his life. He died recently. His daughter wrote the obituary and said he was a wonderful man. Maybe she didn't have any sons.
Another great show we had was Billy Barty's Big Top. Billy was a famous dwarf. He was no taller than a five year old. This show had a circus theme, a large participatory audience of young children and Billy dressed up like a Ringmaster, with a tailcoat, top hat, shiny boots and a whip. I don't know if you've ever seen Billy, he got pretty steady work in the movies for decades playing demons from hell. Many of the children in the audience would cringe and cry out when he came near. Most kids shows played cartoons. On Billy Barty's Big Top they only played Three Stooges shorts. That was good. I liked the Three Stooges.
Soupy Sales was a guy that really understood kids. He never patronized or talked down. He made fun of adults. His whole show was just him in a kitchen set and two, dog paw, hand puppets, White Fang and Black Tooth. Adults got the idea he was somehow dirty or subversive. He wasn't. He was just in tune with little kids. He had to move around a lot. Chances are he was on TV in your area when you were a kid at some point. He was in Detroit before LA, then moved on to New York City. He lasted about a year.
Us kids got a little older, we watched the dance shows in the afternoon. American Bandstand played everywhere but I think it was out of Philly. We didn't have that much in common with the kids in Philly.
LA had it's own nationally syndicated dance show, Lloyd Thaxton's Hop. I always thought it was better than Bandstand but then, it was a West Coast Show. There were three big Rock and Roll AM stations in LA. KFWB was the best in the early '60s. Later, KRLA was best during the Sunset Strip years. As AM radio faded out into '70s FM, the KHJ Boss Jocks won out by default. At any given time during the '60s and early '70s at least one of these stations had an afternoon dance show on local TV, every weekday, after school. They mostly spun records but they always had at least one live act. These were good bands. The Sunset Strip and Laurel Canyon was the place for aspiring musicians in those days. The Doors. The Byrds. Sonny and Cher. The Beach Boys. Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The Turtles. They were all on, all the time. English Bands that were in town would do the shows too. If you were in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, it was a big deal for social kids from the same school to get a block of tickets and go to these shows as a group. They would dress up in their best clothes, arrange dates with a suitable dancing partner and get a couple of Moms to haul them up to Hollywood, in the family wagons. The rest of us would all tune in that afternoon to see them on TV. It didn't matter that they looked incredibly young and unhip, next to the DJ hosts, the professional Go Go Girls and the Bands. They were there and we weren't, so who was unhip? These shows changed all the time. There were a bunch of different ones. Boss City, Ninth Street West, I can't remember all the names. It was a long time ago.
One show I remember was called Groovy. I think it was KHJ and Sam Riddle was the host. Sam was a little guy who managed to look like he was in his twenties for a couple of decades. He wore really expensive designer clothes, pointy toed shoes with stacked heels, big floppy cravats and flippy, shellacked, haircuts. He was a top morning drive time DJ. When he did a show it always got the best bands. The Summer of '67 I think, they switched the show from an indoor studio to the beach next to the Santa Monica Pier. Since it was a beach show, they needed a guy with a body to host. They got this guy named Michael Blodgett. He was not a DJ, just some kid who wanted to get into show biz, from the Mid West. He was like a big, friendly, floppy puppy. They teamed him up with the head dancer from the studio show, a hard body, valley girl, with three coats of lacquer, named Kam Nelson. This show was only on for about three months but it was the best LA afternoon dance show ever, even though there wasn't much dancing. Micheal would run around the beach and talk to people. Kind of like Huell Hauser, only young, not gay and not incredibly lame. Kam would deliver monologues on why she thought long hair for guys was really, really sexy. They always had a dance contest, every day. Just for girls. Just in bikinis. So maybe it was really a bikini contest. It was very tastefully done though. No leering judges. Kam always picked the winner. She knew about dancing and bikinis. I worked most afternoons so I only got to watch it a few times. It was good though.
Romper Room totally sucked. I am convinced that marijuana cigarettes got called doobees in response to the insipid Romper ladies exhortations to do be a Do Bee, while looking through her magic mirror at all of us. The less said about Captain Kangaroo and Mister Green Jeans, the better.
We got a lot of retreaded serial Westerns from the Saturday matinees of the '30s, '40s and early '50s. I liked those. Gene Autrey and Hopalong Cassidy were pretty faggy but John Wayne was good, whether he was on his own, part of the Three Mequiteers or teamed up with wily, old Gabby Hayes. My favorite was a cowboy star named Sunset Carson. He never had a sidekick. I pretended I was his sidekick and learning to be a crusading range rider. Cowboy Bob Steele, the Yiddish Avenger was really good too. He was only about five feet tall and mowed down the big bad men with his tiny fists, what little kid wouldn't like that.
The local kid shows would never fly today. The budgets were low, the scripts rudimentary and the talent pool shallow. There was this one guy named Engineer Bill, who had a huge electric train set up. There were always a lot of closeup shots of his trains going into and coming out of deep, dark tunnels, accompanied by loud train whistle sound effects. He would have a little boy on each day as a guest. The little boy was always an electric train enthusiast. Engineer Bill and the boy would examine each others equipment and the boy got to run engineer Bill's big locomotive around the track a few times. Then they played a milk drinking game called Red Light/Green Light. I'm sure many's the boy who reenacted that game years later when remembering his visit to Engineer Bill's Round House, only with something a lot stronger than milk. Something bad happened one day on the set of Engineer Bill's Round House. The show was never on again and Engineer Bill retired from the entertainment industry and sold insurance somewhere in the Valley, for the rest of his life. He died recently. His daughter wrote the obituary and said he was a wonderful man. Maybe she didn't have any sons.
Another great show we had was Billy Barty's Big Top. Billy was a famous dwarf. He was no taller than a five year old. This show had a circus theme, a large participatory audience of young children and Billy dressed up like a Ringmaster, with a tailcoat, top hat, shiny boots and a whip. I don't know if you've ever seen Billy, he got pretty steady work in the movies for decades playing demons from hell. Many of the children in the audience would cringe and cry out when he came near. Most kids shows played cartoons. On Billy Barty's Big Top they only played Three Stooges shorts. That was good. I liked the Three Stooges.
Soupy Sales was a guy that really understood kids. He never patronized or talked down. He made fun of adults. His whole show was just him in a kitchen set and two, dog paw, hand puppets, White Fang and Black Tooth. Adults got the idea he was somehow dirty or subversive. He wasn't. He was just in tune with little kids. He had to move around a lot. Chances are he was on TV in your area when you were a kid at some point. He was in Detroit before LA, then moved on to New York City. He lasted about a year.
Us kids got a little older, we watched the dance shows in the afternoon. American Bandstand played everywhere but I think it was out of Philly. We didn't have that much in common with the kids in Philly.
LA had it's own nationally syndicated dance show, Lloyd Thaxton's Hop. I always thought it was better than Bandstand but then, it was a West Coast Show. There were three big Rock and Roll AM stations in LA. KFWB was the best in the early '60s. Later, KRLA was best during the Sunset Strip years. As AM radio faded out into '70s FM, the KHJ Boss Jocks won out by default. At any given time during the '60s and early '70s at least one of these stations had an afternoon dance show on local TV, every weekday, after school. They mostly spun records but they always had at least one live act. These were good bands. The Sunset Strip and Laurel Canyon was the place for aspiring musicians in those days. The Doors. The Byrds. Sonny and Cher. The Beach Boys. Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The Turtles. They were all on, all the time. English Bands that were in town would do the shows too. If you were in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, it was a big deal for social kids from the same school to get a block of tickets and go to these shows as a group. They would dress up in their best clothes, arrange dates with a suitable dancing partner and get a couple of Moms to haul them up to Hollywood, in the family wagons. The rest of us would all tune in that afternoon to see them on TV. It didn't matter that they looked incredibly young and unhip, next to the DJ hosts, the professional Go Go Girls and the Bands. They were there and we weren't, so who was unhip? These shows changed all the time. There were a bunch of different ones. Boss City, Ninth Street West, I can't remember all the names. It was a long time ago.
One show I remember was called Groovy. I think it was KHJ and Sam Riddle was the host. Sam was a little guy who managed to look like he was in his twenties for a couple of decades. He wore really expensive designer clothes, pointy toed shoes with stacked heels, big floppy cravats and flippy, shellacked, haircuts. He was a top morning drive time DJ. When he did a show it always got the best bands. The Summer of '67 I think, they switched the show from an indoor studio to the beach next to the Santa Monica Pier. Since it was a beach show, they needed a guy with a body to host. They got this guy named Michael Blodgett. He was not a DJ, just some kid who wanted to get into show biz, from the Mid West. He was like a big, friendly, floppy puppy. They teamed him up with the head dancer from the studio show, a hard body, valley girl, with three coats of lacquer, named Kam Nelson. This show was only on for about three months but it was the best LA afternoon dance show ever, even though there wasn't much dancing. Micheal would run around the beach and talk to people. Kind of like Huell Hauser, only young, not gay and not incredibly lame. Kam would deliver monologues on why she thought long hair for guys was really, really sexy. They always had a dance contest, every day. Just for girls. Just in bikinis. So maybe it was really a bikini contest. It was very tastefully done though. No leering judges. Kam always picked the winner. She knew about dancing and bikinis. I worked most afternoons so I only got to watch it a few times. It was good though.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Making Change
I was at the drug store the other day. I purchased a single item that cost $2.14 including tax. I gave the cashier, a very attractive young woman whose name tag read Sierra, a five dollar bill. She punched it up before I was finished reaching into my back pack for 14 cents.
She stared at the 14 cents blankly. She asked me what eighty six minus fourteen was. I told her. She asked me what one hundred minus eighty six was. I told her. She asked me what one hundred minus fourteen was. I told her. I was starting to get a little confused myself, at this point. Sierra continued to stare at my fourteen cents.
"It's OK Sierra", I said. "Just give me back my 14 cents."
She gave me back my 14 cents, then gave me the $2.86 that her register told her was my change. We all learned to make change when I was young. It's not about adding or subtracting. It's about counting backward. It's not something anybody needs to do anymore. Why should poor Sierra know how? She probably knows how to do a lot of stuff I don't.
She stared at the 14 cents blankly. She asked me what eighty six minus fourteen was. I told her. She asked me what one hundred minus eighty six was. I told her. She asked me what one hundred minus fourteen was. I told her. I was starting to get a little confused myself, at this point. Sierra continued to stare at my fourteen cents.
"It's OK Sierra", I said. "Just give me back my 14 cents."
She gave me back my 14 cents, then gave me the $2.86 that her register told her was my change. We all learned to make change when I was young. It's not about adding or subtracting. It's about counting backward. It's not something anybody needs to do anymore. Why should poor Sierra know how? She probably knows how to do a lot of stuff I don't.
Happy Holidays
The current common wisdom, as heard from government spokespeople and the media is that the economic crisis is stabilizing. According to them we will have another couple of bad quarters and then the economy will begin to expand again. This is ridiculous.
The defaulting of leveraged debt continues to increase and there remain a couple of hundred trillion worth of these babies outstanding. These loans weren't made with real money and nothing to collateralize them with but layer upon layer of more leveraged debt. Residential real estate prices continue to drop with commercial and agricultural markets still to follow. While consumer spending is way down, personal savings rates are near zero and unsecured credit card debt is still skyrocketing. Foreign trade deficits, while decreasing, are still high and as a percentage of GDP may actually be rising. Presently, what we are exporting is equity in American business and it is being sold at pennies on the dollar. The only sector of the economy that is expanding is government spending. The sector that is decreasing the most dramatically is government revenues. If you look at a chart of the monetary base on nearly any scale, it shows a parabolic rise.
Many in business, government and academia are rightly realizing that we are currently in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. What they don't recognize is that this crisis is just getting started. It might be years yet, before things really play out and a generation or more before things start to improve. There is no money to support the kinds of services and benefits that people take for granted and politicians promise to increase them. Standards of living continue at all time highs, while the average citizen continues to go deeper into debt. We continue to spend more money on our military than the rest of the World combined. We are defending an America that doesn't even belong to us anymore. The American family has fewer children than at any time in it's history and access to education and information is vastly greater than even a few years ago but illiteracy is at an all time high and rising. A Chinese child whose family lives in a provincial area, in one room, on an income of a few dollars a day, receives a better education than the majority of American youth. Things aren't just getting worse. We're still making them worse.
The defaulting of leveraged debt continues to increase and there remain a couple of hundred trillion worth of these babies outstanding. These loans weren't made with real money and nothing to collateralize them with but layer upon layer of more leveraged debt. Residential real estate prices continue to drop with commercial and agricultural markets still to follow. While consumer spending is way down, personal savings rates are near zero and unsecured credit card debt is still skyrocketing. Foreign trade deficits, while decreasing, are still high and as a percentage of GDP may actually be rising. Presently, what we are exporting is equity in American business and it is being sold at pennies on the dollar. The only sector of the economy that is expanding is government spending. The sector that is decreasing the most dramatically is government revenues. If you look at a chart of the monetary base on nearly any scale, it shows a parabolic rise.
Many in business, government and academia are rightly realizing that we are currently in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. What they don't recognize is that this crisis is just getting started. It might be years yet, before things really play out and a generation or more before things start to improve. There is no money to support the kinds of services and benefits that people take for granted and politicians promise to increase them. Standards of living continue at all time highs, while the average citizen continues to go deeper into debt. We continue to spend more money on our military than the rest of the World combined. We are defending an America that doesn't even belong to us anymore. The American family has fewer children than at any time in it's history and access to education and information is vastly greater than even a few years ago but illiteracy is at an all time high and rising. A Chinese child whose family lives in a provincial area, in one room, on an income of a few dollars a day, receives a better education than the majority of American youth. Things aren't just getting worse. We're still making them worse.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Loss Leader Turkey
Later this morning I will buy a frozen turkey at Ralph's. If I spend $25 dollars it's 37 cents a pound. A 24lb bird will cost me about $9. I don't like to cook a big turkey. Then it's like a race to eat it before it goes bad. The trick is to utilize the entire bird at your leisure over a month or two.
I will bone the bird stripping off all the meat. The carcass I will immediately roast along with the neck, giblets and skin, with a couple of sliced onions, on a rack. When done I can make a nice, brown stock with carrots and celery, some for soup and some for casserole sauce. The fat gets poured into a saucepan. Chunks of the meat can be slow simmered in it, into a confite, which will keep for months in the frig. Very French. La La. The thigh meat would be good for this. The drumsticks I will put in a butcher's brine. It can cure for weeks if I want and makes a good roast or barbecue. It can also be cooked with blackeyed peas, beans or greens. It will be redder than ham and only a little salty. The breast can be cut into one pound portions, plastic wrapped and frozen. Easy meals. The small scraps I will use right away for soup and we'll eat soup this week. The larger scraps I will bag up and freeze along with half the stock for pot pie, a la king, tettrazini, whatever. A lot of meals, cheap. Yum.
It's not so much we need to economize. I like a little domestic challenge.
Turkey isn't that inspiring of a poultry variety. I'm not that crazy about it. It's OK. I wish we had a holiday where they sold cheap duck. Goose would be even better.
I will bone the bird stripping off all the meat. The carcass I will immediately roast along with the neck, giblets and skin, with a couple of sliced onions, on a rack. When done I can make a nice, brown stock with carrots and celery, some for soup and some for casserole sauce. The fat gets poured into a saucepan. Chunks of the meat can be slow simmered in it, into a confite, which will keep for months in the frig. Very French. La La. The thigh meat would be good for this. The drumsticks I will put in a butcher's brine. It can cure for weeks if I want and makes a good roast or barbecue. It can also be cooked with blackeyed peas, beans or greens. It will be redder than ham and only a little salty. The breast can be cut into one pound portions, plastic wrapped and frozen. Easy meals. The small scraps I will use right away for soup and we'll eat soup this week. The larger scraps I will bag up and freeze along with half the stock for pot pie, a la king, tettrazini, whatever. A lot of meals, cheap. Yum.
It's not so much we need to economize. I like a little domestic challenge.
Turkey isn't that inspiring of a poultry variety. I'm not that crazy about it. It's OK. I wish we had a holiday where they sold cheap duck. Goose would be even better.
Who are those Guys?
Over 90% of Americans say they believe in God. Almost half say they go to church at least once a week. 66% of Americans say they are very patriotic and virtually all the rest claim to be at least somewhat patriotic. Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism. It is mere window dressing in the party platform. They claim to be the party of religious, patriotic Americans. The numbers don't add up. If they were what they claimed, they would sweep elections in every State. Who are they ?
They are the party of race hatred, cultural separatism, subjugation of women and children, traditional economic entitlements. They are the Gay bashers, disenfranchisers of the poor, revilers of the educated, the artistic, the tolerant, the scientific, anyone engaged in novel thought or creativity. They are the party of authoritarian organized religion, seeking to stifle those of alternative philosophy or lifestyle. They are the party of unilateral foreign wars of aggression, currently targeting the towel headed, sand nigger but ever on the lookout for new enemies.
They say that America has made a terrible mistake and is headed for disaster. For all I know, they are right. I know I will not go where they want to take me. I would rather go to Hell, be devoured by Satan and burn forever in his foul, digestive juices, than take one step, as a fellow traveler on the road to the America they would create. You can't always know where you go. It can be enough to know where you are not going. When unsure of the dangers ahead, go with those who pose the least danger.
They are the party of race hatred, cultural separatism, subjugation of women and children, traditional economic entitlements. They are the Gay bashers, disenfranchisers of the poor, revilers of the educated, the artistic, the tolerant, the scientific, anyone engaged in novel thought or creativity. They are the party of authoritarian organized religion, seeking to stifle those of alternative philosophy or lifestyle. They are the party of unilateral foreign wars of aggression, currently targeting the towel headed, sand nigger but ever on the lookout for new enemies.
They say that America has made a terrible mistake and is headed for disaster. For all I know, they are right. I know I will not go where they want to take me. I would rather go to Hell, be devoured by Satan and burn forever in his foul, digestive juices, than take one step, as a fellow traveler on the road to the America they would create. You can't always know where you go. It can be enough to know where you are not going. When unsure of the dangers ahead, go with those who pose the least danger.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Why All The Bailouts Will Fail
CNBC reports that four and one third trillion dollars have already been committed by the Federal government to bailing out the financial system. That is a lot of money. It is ultimately money thrown away.
If you give money to sailors, they will find prostitutes. If you give money to builders they will add a bathroom to your house. If you give money to lawyers they will file a lawsuit on your behalf. If you give money to doctors, they will diagnose you with a disease, then cure you. If you give money to policemen they will arrest people you don't like. If you give money to merchants, they will buy stuff cheap and put it on sale. If you give money to miners they will dig holes in the ground. If you give money to a company losing money they will lose some more. If you give money to poor people, they will buy crack cocaine and have pizza delivered. They can't help it, it's just the way they are.
If you give money to bankers, they will steal it. Then they will ask for more. They can't help it. It's just the way they are.
There is no use blaming the bankers. They are just doing what bankers do. The blame is on us, for giving them money.
If you give money to sailors, they will find prostitutes. If you give money to builders they will add a bathroom to your house. If you give money to lawyers they will file a lawsuit on your behalf. If you give money to doctors, they will diagnose you with a disease, then cure you. If you give money to policemen they will arrest people you don't like. If you give money to merchants, they will buy stuff cheap and put it on sale. If you give money to miners they will dig holes in the ground. If you give money to a company losing money they will lose some more. If you give money to poor people, they will buy crack cocaine and have pizza delivered. They can't help it, it's just the way they are.
If you give money to bankers, they will steal it. Then they will ask for more. They can't help it. It's just the way they are.
There is no use blaming the bankers. They are just doing what bankers do. The blame is on us, for giving them money.
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