Musings, Opinions, etc.
My lords and my ladies of the royal court, I give unto you a smattering of opinions guaranteed to thrill, excite and entertain. And if you aren't the least bit annoyed, then I haven't done my job.
Without any further ado, let's light this candle.
Termi-Nader 2: Judgement Day
So apparently Ralphie-boy decided to form an "exploratory committee" to run for President.
Great Caesar's Ghost! Look, like I said back a few days ago, I love you, man. You did a lot of good things for energy policy and consumer protection under the Carter administration. But as the song goes, "That was then, this is...is...now." Being the intelligent sort, I took a good hard look at what you had to offer during your first run in 2000. There were a lot of things that got the inner revolutionary in me going, but the more I read, the more I realized that you were more or less doing what Ross Perot did in '92. That is mainly saying that the whole thing was broken and needed to be fixed and you were the guy to fix it, rather than offering reasonable ideas to affect that change. In fact, Ralphie boy, some of the things you were saying were down right reactionary. Which is why I compare you to Ross Perot.
George Bernard Shaw said ("Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy") thus:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
The problem with you, Ralphie boy, is that you are a unreasonable man in a time when we don't need any more unreasonable men. We already have one (two if you count Edwards), which is The Kid from The South Side, Mr. Barack Obama
Don't go away mad, just go away.
What's the Matter with Vermont
The answer, of course, is not a damn thing. In fact, for being on the East Coast, and thus automatically getting the East Coast Bias in the MSM, they are pretty damn progressive on a number of things. (It helps that they are also home to a pretty damn good ice cream company you might have heard of and the homestate of a certain neo-Greatful Dead band.)
Of course, that hasn't stopped some of the dull-eyed, mouth-breathing, Drudge-worshipping, Conservatives to write a large number of hate mail to the town of Brattleboro, VT who dared (DARED, I tells ya.) to put up a petition making Shrub and "Mad Dog" Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution. I swear, mandatory retro-active birth control for the lot of those asshats who obviously fell asleep during the civics class cause they were out drinking and humping the cheerleaders.
When the President and the VP takes the oath, they swear to uphold and defend the constitution, not turn it into their own personal toilet paper, which BushCo has clearly done. Are they the first ones to change things in the Constitution? Nope, FDR is just as guilty of that, but at least he and others who have gone before have had everyone's best interests at heart instead of just doing it for personal gain for themselves or their cronies and companies that they have a stake in. (Yeah, Haliburton and Enron, I'm looking at YOU.) Frankly, I think the townsfolk should be given a parade.
Memo to Brent Caflisch: You know, it's probably a good thing for you that you didn't write that to, say, London or New York City, cause you probably wouldn't be able to travel anywhere outside of that little craphole of a town because you'd get mugged and then beat down like the Fool that you are. Also, you read Drudge? Haven't you heard, dear boy. He's not "fair and balanced" any more than Faux News is. The fact that Drudge more or less made his money off the Monicagate issue says a lot about his biases.
Do I read Drudge? Yes, because it falls under the classification of "know thine enemy."
You know, if I was the Chief of Police in Brattleboro, I would be seeking misdemeanor charges against Mr. Caflisch for threatening a public official. Or at least suing him. But then, that's just the venom talking.
And speaking of venom...
Sub-Prime Rib
And I save the nastiest of my venom for those Sub-Prime bastards (specifically Homecomings Financial) who have contributed to this current mess we have ourselves in housing-wise. Oh, sure, there's plenty of blame to pass around in this one (the banks, the folks who did it who should have known better, etc) but they are the chief culprits here.
I should perhaps explain things. Back when my parents were still married, they were encouraged a couple of times to refinance the house. The last time was by a company whose representative promised not to put it in an ARM. Needless to say, they lied. Not only that, but when my stepfather freaked out after being told by my mother that she was no longer in love with him he left her holding the bag. The house payments were close to 1000 dollars, even though the house is nowhere near worth that much. Yet because of this, the house that I live in is no longer owned by my mom or my stepfather. It's owned by the Finance Company. This means that I am essentially a squatter. I live here only because I, my girlfriend, my mother, her fiancee and his
son haven't been served with papers yet. It's only a matter of time, and I have been up very late at night trying to figure out what I am going to do, etc.
Having said that, it brought my heart some good when I heard that the FBI is investigating 14 companies for accounting fraud related to subprime mortgage loans. Now before anyone corrects me, I know that it's probably only related to those companies who have swooped in like vultures to pick the meat off the bones using shady math to "help" out otherwise Good and Decent folk who just got in a bad deal. Of course, I won't expect that they'll go after the real criminals here, but I can hope that at least it serves notice to those companies like Homecomings Financial that their days are numbered.
Or at least they will be, once Barack Obama is elected President.
And on that note, I leave you. It has been a real honor to walk through your garden. Good night, good luck, and keep your powder dry.
Without any further ado, let's light this candle.
Termi-Nader 2: Judgement Day
So apparently Ralphie-boy decided to form an "exploratory committee" to run for President.
Great Caesar's Ghost! Look, like I said back a few days ago, I love you, man. You did a lot of good things for energy policy and consumer protection under the Carter administration. But as the song goes, "That was then, this is...is...now." Being the intelligent sort, I took a good hard look at what you had to offer during your first run in 2000. There were a lot of things that got the inner revolutionary in me going, but the more I read, the more I realized that you were more or less doing what Ross Perot did in '92. That is mainly saying that the whole thing was broken and needed to be fixed and you were the guy to fix it, rather than offering reasonable ideas to affect that change. In fact, Ralphie boy, some of the things you were saying were down right reactionary. Which is why I compare you to Ross Perot.
George Bernard Shaw said ("Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy") thus:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
The problem with you, Ralphie boy, is that you are a unreasonable man in a time when we don't need any more unreasonable men. We already have one (two if you count Edwards), which is The Kid from The South Side, Mr. Barack Obama
Don't go away mad, just go away.
What's the Matter with Vermont
The answer, of course, is not a damn thing. In fact, for being on the East Coast, and thus automatically getting the East Coast Bias in the MSM, they are pretty damn progressive on a number of things. (It helps that they are also home to a pretty damn good ice cream company you might have heard of and the homestate of a certain neo-Greatful Dead band.)
Of course, that hasn't stopped some of the dull-eyed, mouth-breathing, Drudge-worshipping, Conservatives to write a large number of hate mail to the town of Brattleboro, VT who dared (DARED, I tells ya.) to put up a petition making Shrub and "Mad Dog" Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution. I swear, mandatory retro-active birth control for the lot of those asshats who obviously fell asleep during the civics class cause they were out drinking and humping the cheerleaders.
When the President and the VP takes the oath, they swear to uphold and defend the constitution, not turn it into their own personal toilet paper, which BushCo has clearly done. Are they the first ones to change things in the Constitution? Nope, FDR is just as guilty of that, but at least he and others who have gone before have had everyone's best interests at heart instead of just doing it for personal gain for themselves or their cronies and companies that they have a stake in. (Yeah, Haliburton and Enron, I'm looking at YOU.) Frankly, I think the townsfolk should be given a parade.
Memo to Brent Caflisch: You know, it's probably a good thing for you that you didn't write that to, say, London or New York City, cause you probably wouldn't be able to travel anywhere outside of that little craphole of a town because you'd get mugged and then beat down like the Fool that you are. Also, you read Drudge? Haven't you heard, dear boy. He's not "fair and balanced" any more than Faux News is. The fact that Drudge more or less made his money off the Monicagate issue says a lot about his biases.
Do I read Drudge? Yes, because it falls under the classification of "know thine enemy."
You know, if I was the Chief of Police in Brattleboro, I would be seeking misdemeanor charges against Mr. Caflisch for threatening a public official. Or at least suing him. But then, that's just the venom talking.
And speaking of venom...
Sub-Prime Rib
And I save the nastiest of my venom for those Sub-Prime bastards (specifically Homecomings Financial) who have contributed to this current mess we have ourselves in housing-wise. Oh, sure, there's plenty of blame to pass around in this one (the banks, the folks who did it who should have known better, etc) but they are the chief culprits here.
I should perhaps explain things. Back when my parents were still married, they were encouraged a couple of times to refinance the house. The last time was by a company whose representative promised not to put it in an ARM. Needless to say, they lied. Not only that, but when my stepfather freaked out after being told by my mother that she was no longer in love with him he left her holding the bag. The house payments were close to 1000 dollars, even though the house is nowhere near worth that much. Yet because of this, the house that I live in is no longer owned by my mom or my stepfather. It's owned by the Finance Company. This means that I am essentially a squatter. I live here only because I, my girlfriend, my mother, her fiancee and his
son haven't been served with papers yet. It's only a matter of time, and I have been up very late at night trying to figure out what I am going to do, etc.
Having said that, it brought my heart some good when I heard that the FBI is investigating 14 companies for accounting fraud related to subprime mortgage loans. Now before anyone corrects me, I know that it's probably only related to those companies who have swooped in like vultures to pick the meat off the bones using shady math to "help" out otherwise Good and Decent folk who just got in a bad deal. Of course, I won't expect that they'll go after the real criminals here, but I can hope that at least it serves notice to those companies like Homecomings Financial that their days are numbered.
Or at least they will be, once Barack Obama is elected President.
And on that note, I leave you. It has been a real honor to walk through your garden. Good night, good luck, and keep your powder dry.