Hy Horoscope for today:

 

We need to have more people like you in roles of power, dear Cancer. And don't feel like it's out of the question - today's astrological weather is helping you find the confidence and physical strength you need to boost your leadership abilities. This is a time for you to take control of the situation. You can do it!

 

The great thing about this country is that I can say whatever I want (excluding the obvious. like death threats, cofessions to crimes, etc) on this blog with out fear of prosecution.  I have the FREEDOM to do so.

 

You know what else is great?  I have the power to delete comments that I don't like!  So NEENER NEENER "No Name"!  Save your political views and misplaced blame for your own blog!

 

 

 

 

... not to vote for that inexperienced, cocky, school-yard mocking and taunting, bonehead of a democratic presidential candidate, he had to go and put all the blame for the finanical crisis on Bush.

 

Obama called the crisis “the final verdict on eight years of failed economic theories of President Bush,” saying McCain had been a consistent supporter of Bush’s policies.

 

Now, if you read my blog from last night, you know exactly which people I feel are responsible for the ongoing financial issues.  Is Bush included in one of the groups I mention?  Yes.  He is included in the very same group that Obama is lumped into, government officials.

 

But let's think about this for a minute.  Our goverment isn't failing and our government is not (and should not) be in control of the business decisions of publically traded finanical institutions.  More could have been done to regulate the industry from a legal standpoint, and I attribute that failure to our elected government officals.  But the blame lies primarily with the executives that authorized the risky loans and the every day Joes who applied for and then didn't pay on them.

 

OOOOH I hope Obama doesn't get elected.  John McCain and his not-great choice for a running mate aren't perfect, but I firmly believe they are the lesser of the two evils.  God help us of Obama/Biden are the next leaders.

 

WARNING - MAJOR RANT TO FOLLOW

 

Just checked MSN, casually because there's never much of a change to the headlines this late at night, when I saw that the Fed had seized WaMu. 

 

Anyone who was surprised by this: shame on you.

 

They grew too fast by making far too many loans to people who have proven track records of defaulting on debt! 

 

Do you know WHY companies make sub-prime loans?  Well I'm gonna tell you regardless.  Here goes:

You can charge quite a bit more on the loan's interest.   *As long as the loan didn't go into default* sub-prome loans were quite profitable.  You could get away with charging so much more in interest because the person applying for the loan either accepted the higher rate because they wanted the house no matter what or they just didn't know any better and didn't care to educate themselves. 

 

Mortgage brokers (many of whom were total newbies at the job and grossly unqualified), made far higher commissions on sub-prime loans. 

 

New home builders, focused only on selling as many new homes as possible, gleefully helped clueless buyers into homes they didn't really have the abiltiy to pay for. 

 

You know who is to blame for all this mess?  I'm gonna tell you that regardless too:

#1. THE DAMN FOOLS who took on too much debt.  Who relied on salespeople, mortgage brokers, and banks to tell them how much they could afford. 

#2. THE MOTHER EFFING GREEDY SONS OF BITCHES at the top of these failed companies.  How the hell is it a sound business decision to go after a market segment with bad credit?  Talk about your short terms gains for long term loss.

#3. Our elected officials (aka the horrible faceless "government" everyone is up in arms about right now), for not ensuring adequate regulation laws.

 

Now, the $64,000.00 Question:

HOW THE HELL IS ALL THIS GOING TO GET CLEANED UP?

 

I say the executives at the failed companies should be subject to HUGE fines.  Let this crisis hit THEM in the pocket book.  Take away their outrageous salaries and their obscene golden parachute compensation packages.  Fuckers.

 

I say the government is stupid to "buy" bad debt.  Doesn't our country owe enough as it is?  We buy that debt and our country is going to loose its credit rating.  How the hell is THAT going to affect the economy?  All a government bail out does is teach people and companies that there are no consequences for their irresponsibility.

 

You say credit will freeze up?  I say it SHOULD be much harder to get a loan.  Low lending standards is what caused this mess in the first place.  NO undocumented loans.  NO loans to anyone under a certain financial rating / credit score.  NO loans to people who can't put at least a 10% stake in what they are buying (a generation ago it was 20% or forget it, if you wanted something you had to SAVE for it, you had to EARN it!).

 

I say we need legislation passed AND ENFORCED to regulate the housing industry better.  Gross fraud on a massive scale can not be overlooked or tolerated any more!  Home appraisals are a joke, they're not worth the paper they are printed on and far too many were outright falsified.

 

I say prosecute preditory lenders, corrupt home appraisers, and spend some of that "700 billion dollars" on educating people on how to handle money and debt.  There ought to be a required class in each year of high school.

 

We've become a people with a sense of entitlement, an expectation of immediate gratification, and no regard for the consequences of our actions.  Until we fix that, nothing is going to change.

There is a web site that I visit sometimes called Engrish, where people can post pictures of funny translations, usually from Asian countries.

 

Here in the good ole US of A, signs are posted in English first, followed by Spanish.  This has always gotten on my nerves, especially at government offices and schools.  Learn the Language, Peoples!

 

I wonder if it annoys the rest of the world to have their signs in their language first and then English.  

I am cheap.  I come from a long line of cheap women.  My great-grandmother would proudly steal not only food from an all-you-can-eat buffet (wrapped in paper napkins, shedding crumbs and leaving grease spots everywhere), but she would also steal THE PLASTIC TUMBLER her free-refills beverage came in!  She would have one of us refill her drink to the top, she'd take a sip, then settle it carefully in her bag, nestled amongst the paper napkins of heisted food.  If a restaurant worker caught on, they never confronted her about it.  My parents still have half a dozen or so of the cups in their kitchen cabinets and Bacca has been gone since, hmm, if I remember right it was New Years Day 1994.

 

I don't condone my great grandmother's petty theft, but I admire her get-the-most-for-my-money spirit.  I am loathe to pay full price for something, I have to really REALLY want it.  When I get home from a shopping trip I love to show Shawn my purchases and we often chorus together "It was on clearance!"  I have written directions for my survivors to use the cheapest casket possible when I die.  LOL

 

So it only stands to reason that I am excited about the stock market right now.  Everything's on sale!  I wish I knew when our house in NC was going to sell (it's been on the market since 6/30, and hell, ITS even clearance priced!)  I'd love to buy up stock in a few companies that I have faith in and just let it ride.

 

I set up a Quote Watchlist on MSN Money this afternoon.  I've set it up to pretend I have 1 stock from each of my 8 companies, for a total price of $342.19

Like I've said, these are companies that I have faith in, I am reasonably sure that they will weather the current economic downturn and rebound from this bear market.  The stocks I have picked have StockScouter ratings of: 10, 7, 7, 5, 6, 7, 7, and 8.

 

I'm going to keep an eye on my Quote Watchlist and see how I do.  If/When the NC house FINALLY sells I *may* go out on a limb and buy them, provided I am confident with what I see at that time.

Wesley doesn't have the maturity to express it as such, but he really misses Colleen during the day.  She goes to all day Kindergarten, so she is gone from 9am to 3:30pm (except Wednesdays, when class is dismissed at 2pm). 

 

When we pick Colleen up she is always full of stories from her day.  Wesley is also full of stories and they talk over eachother till Colleen gets frustrated and yells at Wes.  Today Wes wanted to tell her about the red screwdriver that Kelly's son gave to him and how, while she was at school, we walked to the store to buy batteries for it.  Colleen refused to listen to him.  :(

 

I tried to mediate as best I could, but Colleen kept saying how she wished she had a new brother and how Wes was "making her nervous" - her term for "getting on my nerves".  Aside from telling her that we don't talk about our brother like that, I didn't really know what to say / do.

 

Mr. K, Colleen's teacher told me today that the school district has a pre-school.  I think I will look into that, it is past time for Wes to get out there and make some new friends of his own.

 

Hugs, Jen

 

My parents live in Cincinnati.  They had storms from Hurricane Ike come through this past Sunday.  It knocked out their electricity.  The power company is estimating that they will get their power back on Saturday. 

 

I imagine I will want to put the story in my "Family History" scrapbook that I have been putzing around with since the 10th anniversary of Shawn's Dad's passing (which was several years ago now).

 

Anyways, I don't want to forget it, so here it is!  :)

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING, 'SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD' ?

WELL, MY NAME IS ALICE SMITH AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST. I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME.

SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY WITH THE SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 40-ODD YEARS AGO.
COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN?

UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT.  THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE.

AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK HIGH SCHOOL

'YES. YES, I DID. I'M A MUSTANG,' HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE.
'WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?' I ASKED.
HE ANSWERED, 'IN 1959. WHY DO YOU ASK?'
'YOU WERE IN MY CLASS! ' I EXCLAIMED.

HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY. THEN, THAT UGLY, OLD, BALD HEADED,  WRINKLED, FAT ASS, GRAY-HAIRED, DECREPIT SON-OF-A-BITCH ASKED,

 

'WHAT DID YOU TEACH?'

THIS is funny!  :)

 

*big long version may be published later, not sure yet*

 

Short Version can be summarized by the sarcastic comment below:

 

How can this woman be a heartbeat away from running the country if she can’t even run her own daughter’s vagina?

 

(Statement above excerpted from this blog.)

> One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river,
> her thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared
> and asked, "My dear child, why are you crying?"
>  
> The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water
> and that she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their
> family.
>  
> The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a golden
> thimble set with pearls.
>  
> "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked
>  
> The seamstress replied, "No."
>  
> The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a silver thimble
> ringed with sapphires.
>  
> "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.
>  
> Again, the seamstress replied, "No."
>  
> The Lord reached down again and came up with a leather thimble. "Is
> this your thimble?" the Lord asked.
>  
> The seamstress replied, "Yes."
>  
> The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three
> thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy.
>  
> Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along
> the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under
> the water.
>  
> When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are
> you crying?"
>  
> "Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"
>  
> The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney.
>  
> "Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.  
> 
> "Yes!" cried the seamstress.
>  
> The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"
>  
> The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord It is a
> misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to George Clooney, you
> would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said 'no' to him, you
> would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have
> given me all three. Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be
> able to take care of all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to
> George Clooney.
>  
> And so the Lord let her keep him.
>  
> The moral of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good
> and honorable reason, and in the best interest of others.
>  
> That's our story, and we're sticking to it.
>  
>   Signed,
>   All Us Women

I'll take the time to write this up properly sometime today (I've got a lot to work on today and feel guilty about taking the time to write a full post).  Short story is that Coco LOVES kindergarten and took to it like a fish in water.  The only problem?  She is FURIOUS that she doesn't get to ride the bus.  Ruined her whole afternoon.  If only she knew how much I worried over her getting to go to the close school.  I didn't exactly move mountains to make it happen, but it wasn't a walk in the park either.  Go figure, huh?

 

Wish me luck, I'm going to try to find someone to fix my laundry room and install the washer and dryer today.  yippee!

 

Hugs, Jen