It was there that I proposed on bended knee... actually, both knees.
She said, "Yes!"
And Cindy is now my fiancé. :-)
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
News on the Personal Front...
Last week my girlfriend and I spent a wonderful 4-day vacation on the gorgeous Catalina Island off the California coast.
Housing, Unemployment & Fraud... OH MY!!!
Ace has a post on how bad the housing mess has become:
... More than 650,000 households had not paid in 18 months, LPS calculated earlier this year. With 19 percent of those homes, the lender had not even begun to take action to repossess the property — double the rate of a year earlier...
Hot Air has a post on California's unemployment numbers for April:
Unemployment claims in California hit 768,709 in April, a modern-day record and the highest during this recession, state Employment Development Department officials report...Just two years ago in April — a year into California’s recession — the unemployed filed 254,123 claims for benefits, EDD stats show. This April, that number more than tripled as the state remained at a record 12.6% unemployment rate, third highest in the country.
And Big Government has a post from James O'Keefe and his recent fraud investigations:
On April 27, 2010, I got a job with the United States Census Bureau in New Jersey. With a hidden camera, I caught four Census supervisors encouraging enumerators to falsify information on their time sheets. Over the course of two days of training, I was paid for four hours of work I never did. I was told to take a 70 minute lunch break, was given an hour of travel time to drive 10 minutes, and was told to leave work at 3:30pm. I resigned prior to doing any data collection but confronted Census supervisors who assured me, “no one is going to be auditing that that level,” and “nobody is going to be questioning it except for you.” Another Census supervisor only said he’d adjust my pay after I gave him a letter recanting my hours.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
And it stoned me...
/queuing Van Morrison/
I kid you not. On the way into work I was listening to a news report on the radio about whether California should legalize marijuana use. And the reporter's name was... Alex Stone........... STONE!!!
/face palm/
Sometimes you just can't make things like this up. LOL
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
UPDATED: More on the Housing Yo-Yo...
Housing starts were up in April (before the Federal tax credit ended), but building permits dropped 11.5%.
Housing starts touched a 1-1/2-year high in April, but a drop in building permits to a six-month low suggested the housing market recovery may struggle to gain momentum without more government aid.
Meanwhile, bank repo's are up, and shadow inventory is in the millions.
"... one factor that has experts really scared: homes that are ready to be sold but haven't been put on the market. Right now, there could be more than 4.5 million homes in "shadow inventory," according to a recent report by Barclays Capital.
This so-called shadow inventory is a recent phenomenon. In the past, inventory was either tight or it wasn't. But now, with home prices so low and so many foreclosures on the market, both homeowners and banks have been waiting to put properties on the market.
"These sidelined sellers closely watch the market for signs of a possible turnaround and rush in if there's a hint of good news," said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.
But as more sellers put their homes up for sale, supplies increase, which will depress prices again. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
That vicious cycle could cause prices to bounce up and down for years. "I see a saw tooth bottom," Humphries said. "Prices go up; inventory rises, which sends prices down again. That plays out for three to five years of no appreciation. ... Without price appreciation, it leaves more homeowners in negative equity. That's toxic. Any setback, like a job loss, they go into foreclosure."
5/19 UPDATE: Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures break records in 1st quarter of this year:
The number of homeowners who missed at least one mortgage payment surged to a record in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over.
More than 10 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That number was up from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1 percent a year earlier...
More than 4.6 percent of homeowners were in foreclosure, also a record... up... slightly from the end of last year...
The number of American homeowners who have missed at least three months of payments or are in foreclosure has surged to around 4.3 million...
Four point three MILLION people are either in foreclosure or are behind in their mortgage payments by at least three months!
WOW!
UPDATE: More news on the backlog of mortgage securities that the feds bought:
Federal Reserve officials were divided over when the Fed should start shedding some of its vast portfolio of mortgage securities. The tricky endeavor would move the central bank closer to tightening credit for millions of Americans.
Minutes of the Fed's closed-door meeting April 27-28, released Wednesday, showed Fed officials expressed wide-ranging views about when and how the Fed should go about selling some of the $1.25 trillion of mortgage securities bought during the financial and economic crises. The assets were purchased to drive down mortgage rates and aid the housing market.
Its challenge is to sell those assets in a way that doesn't weaken home prices and jack up mortgage rates...
Most Fed officials favored "deferring asset sales for some time." A majority preferred beginning sales some time after the Fed's first increase in its key short-term bank lending rate. Such an approach would postpone any asset sales until the economic recovery was firmly entrenched.
The federal government sill sitting on a crap-load of mortgage securities.
Tuesday Hodge Podge...
Two Phoenix Suns fans were escorted out of the arena for wearing "Viva Los 1070" T-shirts.
A huge mosque being built at the site of 9/11 was quietly given the green light, and is now scheduled to open on... 9/11/2011.
And, remember the PA memorial to Flight 93 and it's crescent shape pointing towards Mecca?
Meanwhile, the new Miss USA is a muslim woman from Michigan over Miss Oklahoma who was asked a Q about the Arizona immigration law and gave a response that didn't sit well with certain contest judges.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Housing Market Still Has A Long Way To Go...
Ace points to this article from Yahoo Financial. Foreclosure filings in April dropped 2%, but actual bank seizures for the same month reached a record 92,000. Add to that the fact that 12% of all homes (7.4 million borrowers) are at least one month behind in their mortgage payments, while unemployment is at 9.9% and incomes are stagnant.
The Big 5 states affected by this housing bubble burst are: Nevada, Arizona, Florida, California and Michigan. Meanwhile, since the federal tax credit ended on April 30, new applications for mortgages since then have dropped 9.5%. Add to that, this little gem from ObamaCare - a nice little 3.8% federal tax on home sales.
The prices for housing in southern CA are still out of whack, despite what certain people may lead you to believe. The bubble's peak reached Cloud 9 in late-2006/early-2007, but it's still on Cloud 4 in 2010. More foreclosures, a flooded market, plus an exodus of those not able to find work will force prices back down to reality over the next 1-2 years.
UPDATE: More pins to burst that bubble further.
*SIGH*
Monday, May 10, 2010
Times Square Scare Follow-up...
(Via the Mike Gallagher show this morning)
Michael Goodwin on "The One's" administration and the fight against islamic jihad terrorists.
ONE of the most troubling tics of Team Obama is the frantic rush to declare that every terror attack on American soil is carried out by an isolated individual with no connection to al Qaeda or other groups. It was the gist of their rapid response to the failed airline bombing on Christmas Day, to the Fort Hood shooter and, most recently, to the plot by Faisal Shahzad to set off a car bomb in Times Square.
Read it all.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
RE-POST: Bombs Away... (Weekend @ Times Square)
RE-POST for more info... 5/6 UPDATE: They took him off the watch list before the bombing attempt! WTF?!?
==================================
Over this past weekend we had to deal with THIS.
Car bomb alerts at east coast airports here.
John Bolton talks straight here.
But please remember now that The One's administration has recently implemented a policy where we can't use words like Islamic Extremism, Islamic Terrorists and Jihad when discussing things like this.
*sigh* This Idiot-in-Chief of ours is gonna get us killed.
5/5 UPDATE: He almost got away! What kinda guy was he? Hmmmm...
ANOTHER UPDATE: Malkin has the "path to citizenship" issue with this terrorist (and others)
MORE DETAILS UPDATE: Surprise, surprise, surprise...
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
A different kind of "surge"...
Monday, May 03, 2010
Bombs Away... (Weekend @ Times Square)
Over this past weekend we had to deal with THIS.
Car bomb alerts at east coast airports here.
John Bolton talks straight here.
But please remember now that The One's administration has recently implemented a policy where we can't use words like Islamic Extremism, Islamic Terrorists and Jihad when discussing things like this.
*sigh* This Idiot-in-Chief of ours is gonna get us killed.
5/5 UPDATE: He almost got away! What kinda guy was he? Hmmmm...
ANOTHER UPDATE: Malkin has the "path to citizenship" issue with this terrorist (and others)
MORE DETAILS UPDATE: Surprise, surprise, surprise...
Friday, April 30, 2010
GDP drops, and The One sat on Health Care info...
(Via Gateway Pundit)
Meanwhile, the Health Care bill fiasco? Seems "The One" had administration officials sit on/hide crucial info until after the bill was passed.
Verrrrrrrrry interesting.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Greece, Portugal, Spain... the U.S.?
Yesterday, Greece and Portugal had their credit ratings dumped by S&P (Portugal by two steps, Greece way down to junk status). Today, Spain also had their ratings cut a notch.
Peter Schiff has some bad news for the U.S., as well.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Uh oh!!!... (hehehe)
Blago just may have something on The One:
The blacked-out portions of a subpoena request filed by lawyers for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- which were revealed through a simple computer trick -- suggest President Obama may have played a role in finding his own Senate replacement.
Oops.
Ace of Spades has more.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Tax Day Revolt 2.0 - Tea Party Time!!!
The 2nd annual Tea Party Tax Revolt is today.
Gateway Pundit has a post.
Check out these links for more info:
How about a "Contract From America"? Sounds good to me!
FORE!!!.......
Foreclosures, that is. Via Ace, the 1st quarter foreclosure rate was astronomical. More here. Been following this for quite some time, though I haven't posted much in recent months about the housing market trend. This doesn't bode well for sellers (whether individual home owners or banks), or for those who are way over their heads in mortgage payments. But, here in California, housing prices are STILL too high from the '98-'06 bogus boom that more than tripled in value. For someone like myself who would like to one day be able to buy/mortgage my first home, the market during the next 1-3 years will be good.
UPDATE: More here, with a focus on Ventura County, CA, and the Top 4 states:
In March alone, there were 1,919 foreclosure filings in the county, a 71 percent spike from February and an almost 14 percent increase from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac. Last month’s filings included 769 default notices, 871 auction sale notices and 279 bank repossessions.
Foreclosures are going to be a problem the rest of the year, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
“We’re climbing out of a basement of a very, very significant downturn,” Kyser said. “We are still losing jobs.”
Experts are mixed on whether the foreclosure fiasco is coming to an end. Some predict another big wave during the summer, when a slew of adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset."
It continues:
The state [of California] accounted for 23 percent of the nation’s total foreclosure activity in the first quarter — more than 216,000 homeowners received foreclosure notices.
Areas hardest hit by foreclosures include Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin and Kern counties.
Among states, Nevada continued to post the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, followed by Arizona and Florida.
UPDATE #2: Okay, maybe not so much good news for potential first-time homebuyers:
A quaint Camarillo three-bedroom house priced at $310,000 sold recently after fetching 11 offers. The winning bid came from an investor who offered $10,000 below asking price. The bank selling the home rejected several solid offers, including one that was $45,000 more than the asking price, with 20 percent down.
The catch? The investor had cash, and the bank wanted a quick close.
Traditional homebuyers are finding it hard to compete as banks try to minimize challenges by going for cash offers, said Kay Wilson-Bolton, a broker for Century 21 Buena Vista.
UPDATE #3: More bad news for the "sand states" here:
Cities in the "Sand States" of Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada, where overbuilding was rampant, are also in trouble, claiming nine of the top 10 spots in our list of cities in free fall. In Las Vegas, Riverside, Calif., and Phoenix, median home prices have fallen 50%, 44% and 37% from their respective peaks. Jobs are vanishing. Though country-wide, employers added 162,00 jobs last month, Riverside gained 13% fewer jobs in February 2010 (the latest numbers available by metro) than it did the same month three years earlier. Tampa, Fla., saw a 10% drop, and Los Angeles added 9% fewer jobs over the same time period.
These cities are also slow to absorb their glut of unsold foreclosed homes, keeping recovery at bay.
"These were highly speculative housing markets," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal firm. "In the markets that have unloaded a lot of foreclosed housing stock there's still a lot more coming."...
... "In California, so many jobs were concentrated in construction," says Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research at the Mortgage Bankers Association, the professional association for real estate financiers. "Jobs building single family homes wound up not being sustainable, and there were a lot of job losses."
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
URGENT PRAYERS AGAIN, PLEASE!!!
Update on my Dad: After coming home from the hospital last week, he started developing fluid in the lungs. Went back in the hospital Sunday night with congestive heart failure. With meds the fluids have been coming off okay, and he's been feeling okay - although weak.
Tests from yesterday and today reveal that some damage has been done to the heart, and that he suffered a heart attack at some point between now and 2008 when he last had tests done after a major surgery. Tomorrow he gets a cath done to check for details on damage and possible blockages, and to determine the next course of action.
This is all touch-and-go, now. Major heart surgery is off the table. Hopefully, just stents or meds to improve or control the situation.
Prayers, again, are requested.
Thanks!
UPDATE: As expected, no surgery or stents. An adjustment of meds to control things. He may come home from hospital as early as tomorrow. He's just go to take it easy from here on out.
Thanx again, peeps!
God Bless!
Oops!... HAHAHAHA!!!
When congress doesn't read the monstrosity of an unpopular bill before they sign it, certain things like this fall through the cracks.
(Oops..... hehehe)
Meanwhile, 58% of Americans now want this terrible bill repealed. And that % will continue to grow.
Add these two factors together, and it makes for a verrrrrrrrry interesting November.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
One Day, Two Day, Red Face, Blue Face...
So, yesterday "The One" decides to remove/ban words like "Islam", "Jihad" and "Islamic extremism" from National Security documents.
Uh-huh...
Okay...
Later the same day, some arrogant diplomat from Qatar named Mohammed Al Madadi decided he deserved to smoke on an airplane from DC to Denver. It was all a "misunderstanding".
Uh-huh...
Okay...
Today we find out that this guy was planning to visit jailed 9/11 terrorist Al Marri.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
Obama Edits Jesus Christ Out of Easter Message...
(Hat-tip to the Mike Gallagher radio show this morning)
President Obama literally edited Christ out of his "holiday greeting" today when he excerpted a sermon given by a military chaplain on Iwo Jima on Easter Sunday 1945.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Urgent prayers needed...
A request for urgent prayers for my Dad who is currently in emergency surgery... for my girlfriend who came down with a sudden illness... and for my friend Angelo's mom who's suffering through a progressive illness.
Several other extended family members are also in need of prayers for various illnesses, past surgeries, and unemployment.
When it rains it pours.
It's times like this when you rely on God to get you thru the tough times.
God bless!!!
UPDATE: My girlfriend is doing better, but it's slow going. Regarding my Dad, he came out of surgery ok. What was thought (at worst) to be a growth in the colon near the appendix, was instead found out to be "just" an inflamed appendix. He's in recovery, but given his age (84) and his medical/surgical history is not "out of the woods." The next 5 days or so will be the determining factor.
Thank you all for the continued prayers!
3/30 UPDATE: My girlfriend is now doing much better. And so is my Dad, who has begun to improve in his recovery from surgery last week after a setback. Thanks again for the prayers!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Welcome Socialized Medicine, Double-Dip Recession, and Tax-Payer Funded Abortions...
(Hat-tip to Ace of Spades & Gateway Pundit)
Turns out he never intended to vote "no".
I consider this to be an accurate description of the man.
John Beohner gives 'em hell.
Eric at The Daily Eudemon has a good commentary.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court rejected a hearing on this case.
This whole weekend of politics has made me ill.
UPDATE: (via PoliPundit) - 20 Bad Things About The Bill.
UPDATE II: More on Stupid Stupak here, and about his ilk here. And it's all about "controlling the people," says a Congressional Democrat.
March Madness Run Amok...
Six of eight Big East teams go down in the first weekend, including my beloved Villanova Wildcats. I'm shocked but not surprised at the 'Cats given their major stumbling at the end of the season. Kansas goes down. Cornell is in the Sweet 16 along with U No Iowa and St. Mary's, Baylor and Butler. They don't call it "madness" for nothin'.
Sheesh!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
A Spending Limit Amendment?...
(Hat-tip to RedState)
Three congressmen (including Mike Pence) offer up a "Spending Limit Amendment" to the Constitution.
Wall Street op-ed here.
I like.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Reid & Pelosi sitting in a tree... and the branch is cracking...
I'm not much for polls, but Rasmussen does pretty standard day-to-day tracking of the TOTUS* and Congress. Gateway Pundit links to the latest re: Congress... now at their lowest approval ratings in history... 10%! YIKES!!!
"...Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job.
That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.
Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job..."
TOTUS*, by the way, has recently reached his peak... errr.... depth of a -19% ratio of Strongly Approve vs. Strong Disapprove of his performance in office (23/42).
*TOTUS = TelePrompTer of the United States of America.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Iraq... what needed to be said...
Major hat-tip to Scott @ Flopping Aces for finding this one:
"I am not naive. I understand that there are individuals who opposed the war in Iraq from the very beginning and I believe their passion, although misguided at times, is rooted in a deep desire for peace. What always baffled me was the reaction they had to pro-victory veterans when we came home. As if we were some robotic arm of the Bush White House. It was foreign for them to understand why winning in Iraq was so important.
Our friends died in this cause. There is no honor in their death unless we complete the mission they died fighting.
Everyone is exposed to the death of someone close to them at least one time in their lives. Cancer, accidents, sometimes it is sudden or violent. Rarely do we see it. But when we do our lives are affected forever because of it. We live in a culture where there must be a reason for everything that goes wrong. Obama is responsible for job loss. Bush ruined the housing market. The tires that blew out on my car that I was driving was a manufacturing error and not due to the fact that I was driving on the sidewalk.
Someone is responsible for everything that goes wrong in America. It makes us feel better to know it wasn’t our fault.
The war in Iraq was no different. While many scurried to blame Donald Rumsfeld, General Franks or President Bush for losing the war in Iraq, they bet against the American fighting men and women to turn the tide of the war. “The mission” in Iraq was evil...
I don’t begrudge these people. They simply will never get it. They are the type of people you need to protect in a society. They are innocent and naive.
It is the job of the warrior to hide them under the bed and tell them it will be okay, before we run off to combat the threat.
The ones that hold my contempt are those who, even today, know of the sacrifice made, the incredible progress gained and still will not acknowledge what was won on the ground in Iraq. They cheapen the sacrifice of how it was earned..."
Read it all here.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Sacre Bleu!!! (or maybe that should be "Sacre Rouge"?)
Fake French Wine??? The nerve!
"French wine-makers and dealers were convicted Wednesday of selling millions of bottles of fake Pinot Noir to the US firm E&J Gallo in one of the biggest scams ever to rattle the world of wine.
A court handed out suspended jail terms and hefty fines to 12 people for selling 18 million bottles (135,334 hectolitres) of wine they said was Pinot Noir but which was in fact made from far cheaper grape varieties.
The convicted included executives from wine estates, cooperatives, a broker, wine merchant Ducasse and the conglomerate Sieur d'Arques."
Thursday, February 11, 2010
2/11/10
So, on Monday I posted this item regarding Iran.
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathering in Tehran to mark the anniversary of their 1979 revolution. Though, there also are protests within the country (the under-40 demographic is much more pro-American), and the current regime is trying to keep that under wraps.
Plus, Iranian President "I'm-a-nut-job" announced that Iran now has successfully enriched uranium, and will continue to do so. I don't think Israel will treat this news lightly. They may already be well aware of it, and may soon decide to do something about it before it gets to the point of directly threatening their existence.
Meanwhile, China has balked at the idea of sanctions (something the U.S. proposed in the addendum to my original post).
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
SnowJobbed (aka, "Why I no longer live in Philly")...
My old home town region got slammed with 24 inches of the white stuff the week before Christmas (very unusual to get that amount of snow for that time of year). This past weekend, they got dumped on with yet another 24 inches of fluffy wooder (that's "water" to all you non-Philly types). And another storm is about to hit later this week. Possibly another 12+ inches.
Brrrrrrrrrrr...
I remember my fair share of blizzards through the years. Once in a great while we'd get one or two (usually in February and March). But the really big storms weren't that often.
Anyway... global warming my a**.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Post #800... What Might Happen on Feb 11, 2010?
My 800th post on this fledgling blog. And the "I-uh-told-ya-so" of Iran has this to say regarding this coming Thursday:
Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, AFP reported.
"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman, February 11, in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel according to AFP.
The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the U.S.-backed shah on February 11, 1979.
Meanwhile, the "Teleprompter-in-Chief" has this going for him.
God help us if Thursday turns out to be something big and ugly.
UPDATE: Awww... a little wrist slap from "The One's" administration. How fitting. How disturbing. How clueless.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Mahony Balony to Change Soon, Too???
From EWTN:
Pope Benedict XVI will soon appoint a coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles, according to an American Catholic blogger. Writing on the Catholic Vote Action blog, and citing “reliable authority,” Thomas Peters says that Cardinal Roger Mahony has approved the coadjutor, and an announcement is imminent. The coadjutor would succeed Cardinal Mahony when he retires.
Cardinal Mahony has enjoyed a remarkably long tenure as Archbishop of Los Angeles, having taken that post in 1985. However he is still well short of the normative retirement age-- he will not turn 75 until February 2011—and although bishops are obliged to submit their resignations at that age, the Pope frequently delays the appointment of a successor.
However, Cardinal Mahony, who has faced controversy frequently in the nation’s most populous archdiocese—particularly over his handling of sex-abuse complaints—has indicated that he neither expects nor wants to extend his tenure.
May we get Archbishop Bruskewitz from Lincoln, NE???
Let us pray!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Buyer's Remorse Redux... I told you so 14 months ago
On Nov 11, 2008, I wrote this:
I placed a comment on a RWN post asking when people will start realizing they might have made a mistake in electing The Obamessiah:Buyers Remorse will begin to kick in after about 6 months, with it hitting full effect one year into his administration. Just like the Clintons, he's going to try to ram a bunch of socialist policies down our throats early, and people will balk (just like they did in 1994).
Yesterday, we have this headline... from Frank Luntz, no less:
A Case of Buyer's Remorse
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
HOPE AND CHANGE!!!
When one of the most liberal of states in the country... with a 9-1 ratio of Ds to Rs in federal and state elective offices... loses the most liberal and political-family/dynasty-entrenched U.S. Senate seat... to a Conservative... by 5 points... because they already went down the very similar road of so-called "health care reform" at the state level and realized what an utter disaster it has been (financial-wise and care-wise)... and are also sick and tired of massive government taxing, spending, waste, regulations, and corruption... THAT gives me real hope for real change.
It almost happened in NY-23 last November. It just happened last night in Massachusetts.
Hopefully, more of the same will occur in November of 2010.
Makes me smile. :-)
Friday, January 01, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
War??? What war???
No, we aren't at war against Islamic terrorists. September 11th was an isolated incident. No need to panic. No need to worry. The government has everything under control. Pay no attention to the empty suit behind the desk of the Oval Office.
"The system worked." Hmmm... really. Maybe not.
His dad warned the U.S. about his son.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Wishing everyone -- family, friends, strangers, blog readers -- a wonderful & blessed, peaceful & loving, safe & spirit-filled...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
P.S. To my patient blog readers... yes, I know, I haven't been blogging much over these last several months. Priorities have shifted as things change in life. But I'm not stopping anytime soon, just being a bit more sparse in posting for the time being.
Monday, November 30, 2009
ClimateGate...
Remember a little over a week ago I posted this regarding Ft. Hood and KSM? In that post I listed my Top 12 blogs for news/politics/current events. Well, you should go to them again and do word searches for "Climategate".
You'll get information like this which you won't get from the mainstream media.
Not-So-Black Friday and Oiled Again...
From the AP:
The gap between what drivers are paying for gasoline compared with a year ago is widening and figures to get worse between now and the end of the year. Prices at the pump were $2.629 a gallon on Monday, 80.4 cents more a gallon than a year ago, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Services. That is about $40 more a month for a typical motorist.
The government releases its survey on retail prices late Monday. Gasoline prices bottomed near $1.61 during the last few days of 2008 as the recession took hold, demand for fuel crumbled and the stock markets tumbled. Consumers now are paying about $1 billion a day for gasoline, about $300 million more a day for gasoline than they did a year ago.
And in December, for the first time in about 10 years, oil prices are expected to be twice what they were a year ago, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for OPIS. Crude prices have been trading between $75 and $82 a barrel for the past month or so. Prices hit $33.87 a barrel on Dec. 19.
The rapid rise in prices is worse for consumers this time, however. Before prices doubled in early 2000, a barrel of crude cost about $10.
As someone who currently spends $250/month on gas for my car, this sucks. It also explains (in part) this next item via Business Week regarding "Black Friday" and the holiday shopping season:
More consumers went shopping over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, yet spent less than last year as they hunted for bargains on toys and electronics, according to the National Retail Federation.
Spending at stores and on Web sites from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29 rose 0.5% to an estimated $41.2 billion from $41 billion a year earlier, the Washington-based trade group said Nov. 29, citing a survey conducted by polling firm BIGresearch. The higher turnout and lower average spending were in line with expectations, the NRF said. The group is sticking to a forecast for a 1% drop in spending this holiday season.
The year-to-year increase in spending for the holiday season is usually an average of 3%. This year's 0.5% is NOT good.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
God
FaithFamily
Friends
Community
Country
Good Health
Better Finances (heh!)
Good Food
Better Wine
Fine Company
Pleasant Conversation
Less Stress & Anxiety
More Joy & Laughter
Contentment
Peace
Love
Wishing all the best that the season could offer you and your loved ones during this holiday.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Dang, that tree is full of dropping ACORNs...
Stupid is as stupid does. Man oh man, are these guys arrogant. Flopping Aces has the story. ACORN HQ in San Diego tried to dump thousands of documents before the California AG got to investigate their shenanigans. No worries, though. Breitbart and BigGovernment.com is on the case.
Heh!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Ft. Hood & KSM... so, what about it?
I've refrained from commenting on the Ft. Hood massacre/terrorist attack, and on "The One's" decision to try five of the highest level 9/11-Gitmo detainees/terrorists in civil court in NYC rather than in a military tribunal. No need to comment. It's obvious and filled with common sense. Something the present administration in the White House is severely lacking.
For detailed posting on both these issues, I'd strongly suggest perusing the November archives of Gateway Pundit, Ace of Spades, Flopping Aces, Hot Air, Powerline, and RedState. Or do word searches on their sites using "Fort Hood" or "Ft. Hood", and "KSM" or "Khalid".
They've done a thorough job.
Those six blog sites (along with RWN, Michelle Malkin, American Thinker, Mark Steyn, PoliPundit and the political cartoon Day By Day) are the cream of the crop and are always in my Top 12 to check on daily for important news, views, issues and insights.
More Nuts Fallin' Outta That Tree, I See...
Apparently, there are a lot more videos of ACORN shenanigans (read: corruption).
What's That Chill I Feel?...
The so-called global warming B.S. has been deliciously busted!
Gateway Pundit and Ace of Spades have the details.
*heh*
Friday, November 06, 2009
Wine Blogs...
Eric @ Daily Eudemon links to a Forbes article on the best wine blogs in cyberspace.
UPDATED: Some of the best are:
Dr. Vino (I get his monthly emails, some reeeeeally good stuff here... plus, wine pairings with Halloween candy???)
Crush Pad (this whole site looks really good)
Wineanorak (want to read about some serious Reisling?)
The Pour (want to read about orange-colored wines?)
Fermentation (gives industry insider info, plus a post on "the wine of my dreams")
Vinography (a sample post about wine retailers).
And the Wine Library video blog.
I will certainly check out these vlogs. ;-)
Hoodwinked...
Gateway Pundit has been following the details of yesterday's tragic Ft. Hood massacre.
Plus "The One-in-Chief" shows his cluelessness here.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Clunk... Clunk... and Clunk again...
That "Cash for Clunkers" program worked out sooooooooo well, didn't it?
Not! As was speculated before it even went into effect, all it did was create sales in July & August that would normally be there in September and October. Which is why Sept & Oct sales #s dropped like a rock.
Not! As we also see, the vast majority of trade-ins were for getting newer pickup trucks to replace older pickup trucks, with only 1-3 mpg increases.
Not! As dealers wait... and wait... and wait... for the government to reimburse them for the program.
Not! As the salvage yards are backlogged with the trade-ins.
Not! As used car prices have increased 16% over last year.
Not! As you may have paid too much in taxes on that trade-in.
Not! As we find out that this big government boondoggle will cost us $24,000 per car (that's our tax dollars at work, baby!).
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