The Goddamn Banks

What we are looking at is another playing out of the game between the haves and the have-nots.  It is the same old game.  Consider this little tidbit (make sure that you have a PDF reader installed). 

The people who wrote this little gem are the folks that caused the current meltdown, who lined their pockets with money stolen from you, I, and everyone we know, who wish to turn our children into debt slaves, and who are now throwing a tantrum because they may well be forced to tell us to whom we, the citizenry, gave our money.

They are trying to keep the information out of the public eye in order to con their shareholders into not selling their stock or their boards of directors from removing the management’s greedy little fingers from the till.

They are angry because they feel that they are special and deserve an extra inning of butt-fucking us. 

I am giving seven-to-two odds that they will get away with it. 

Power

I have been listening raptly about how this is the time for the Chinese to thrust themselves into the fore.

Hogwash.

This is merely sloppy thinking by commentators who think in terms of silly games. If the US loses power, the power has to go somewhere else. As if the geopolitical world is a simple zero sum game where loss by one actor implies victory for another. This is silly at best, dangerous at worst.

I spent way too much time in China. Set up a couple of factories, made a couple of friends, am comfortable with guzzling Yanjing and Beijing beers, and can successfully use the verb (肏) if the woman is drunk enough.

Hence my credentials. The other part of my credentials is that I did actually spend time working daily with folks, seeing their lives, eating with them, and getting along. Most of the folks who babble on about the "coming Chinese century" do the bulk of their work from the business center on the upper floors of the Kerry Center Hotel after being squired about by well-trained Chinese flacks.

They supposedly see a country that is coming on(China). They also see a country that is supposedly declining (us).  The assumption that they make is that the "power" concept that they wave about like a fetish is flowing from the waning country to the waxing country. Fools.

What we are seeing is a net loss of "power" in the entire system. The US is waning more rapidly because it is falling from a higher level. The Chinese is not gaining power, they are just losing it less quickly from a lower starting point.

I still hate China: But the money is good

I still hate China: But the money is good. Had a little fight with Pollyanna this morning. I cannot understand why people believe the tripe coming out of government officials mouths and why they belive that it is true. If there are a group of people more out of touch than the US government researchers I would not want to be in the same country as they are.

It is ridiculous after a while. The CDC and the WHO get together and create a costly, academic test algorithm and state that this will be the way that it is. The countries that have the HIV problem are poor and incredibly corrupt.

The combination of academic white-tower thinking coupled with the corruption and ignorance of the third word offer the single biggest obstacle in the fight against HIV. The real way to fight the problem is to flood the market with low cost tests and have the testing of partners become the accepted norm. That and you have to fight the brutal poverty that blankets the world and is showing every sign of getting worse.

So the American Pharma/Diagnostic firms (for which I am a willing whore) are over working the system so that the prices are as high as possible and the margins are as high as possible so that executive salaries and bonuses can go up and shareholder value can be increased.

The fight against HIV is actually quite secondary.

Narita

Original 07/15/05

I'm sitting at the bar in Narita airport again. There is a glass of beer at my right hand and some Pennsylvania pretzels on my left.

The flight to San Francisco has been delayed. Apparently the plane that I just arrived on from Bangkok is not up to the task of taking us any further. That being said, as this is the plane that I just flew in on. When did it become less-than-flightworthy? Inquiring minds want to know.

So its the usual. Wanting desperately to be home. Sick of travel and completely disgusted by the mystery of the Orient. Luckily Narita is even one step past the concept of Generica. It is an environment so sterile and lacking of character that it is the equivalent of a fishbowl. A completely artificial place where life functions can be maintained to allow for a good presentation, but when you are stuck here, it drains the soul in a way that is difficult to describe.

But tomorrow afternoon I wil be hanging out with the boys and doing things that I want to do. Tomorrow is swimming and a little getting back into the house and reorganized. I really don't know why I am doing this. I will probably be leaving go back to Beijing within two weeks.

I really am beginning to hate the traveling. When you couple it with the stupidity of the missions that I am sent out to accomplish it makes it hard to get excited about the work other than the paychecks and semi-stability that it allows for the present.

So I guess that I will finish my beer, try to find a mass-market paperback to read, and live my life in the grey flannel suit.

Maybe I will dream of better days.

Traffic rules in Bangkok

Rule 1: Pedestrian have no rights, get over it.

Rule 2: A turn signal from a car in front of you means accelerate and cut them off. Never, repeat, never, allow someone to get in front of you.

Rule 3: Lines are for losers, Drive to the front and cut in...fuck them

Rule 4: Switching lanes is fun, try not to stay in one lane for any extended period of time.

fffffin' Laundry

Sometimes, just sometimes, you get it in you head that laundry is a self-replicating life form. No, don't laugh. It fits all of the parameters. It has a defined form and structure(cloth), specific ecological niche (obligatory parasite). It has a defined subspecies(shirts, pants, underwear et al) and allows itself to change (evolve) in terms of external stimulus (fashion). It has requisite energy inputs (washing machine and soap), and lifecycle (clean, in pile, dirty, being washed).

Think about it.

Gonna be dicey for a bit

Folks, don’t be surprised if you don’t see all that many posts for a while. My disposable time is getting strained with, jobs, commuting, coaching, cooking, etc., etc.

I don’t have time enough to write to my satisfaction.

See you after school starts and things get back to normal.

Going to repost some of my old stuff from a previous blog back in 04-05 for the rest of this week, but don't expect too much in the way of new thought (yes, I do use that word loosely)

Long-Winded and Meandering

I truly believe that there has been a fundamental change in the way that we operate here in America. Everyone alive today, save for the 80+ crowd who lived through the depression, is deeply imbued with the idea of American exceptionalism and how, due to the inherent goodness accrued by the choice of our birth country, we will never be less than the top of the heap.

Folks here have never known a serious hard time. They also have an odd idea that any other way of doing things is bad and as such should be shouted down vociferously. The current conflict at the political level in this country is a direct result of this. The good times of the past 15 years are not the result of a bit of overspending, but are our right and the ideal to which we should return.

But our "way of life" and the governance arrangements that we currently operate under are pretty much unique to our current point in history. Which is the way that it should be. The purpose of our elections is not the passing of the stone tablets to a new high priest for him to enforce the rules of the past, but rather, it appears to me to be a deliberate means of changing the means of governance to suit the exigencies of the time. I would be astounded if our founding fathers thought of it in any other way

This idea of a fluid government that evolves to suit the times and the will of the populace has offended right- thinking people since the inception of the Council of the Plebes in ancient Rome, probably before that. The idea that a majority should rule is one that sits well when one is a part of the majority. It is, of course, somewhat less appealing when one is in the minority. But that is the nature of our government and our constitution.

There are always folks who don't like the way that things are being done at the present, and there is a subset of those who will advocate violent means to return things to "the right way". I refer to these as "the dimmer bulbs".

For some reason, Europe seems to draw the most ire from the dimmer bulbs. "They are socialist's for God sakes." or "they don't work hard like us Murkins". It never seems to dawn on the clot-brains that lurk around the nut-case right side of the spectrum that the living and governance arrangements of other countries are not the product of evil, but rather a means of dealing with a set of antecedent conditions unique to that particular country.

I Honestly didn't know what to say

Football season started. This is my last year coaching as next year the young son will be in 8th grade and playing for the school.

Parents meeting last evening. Most of the parents feel that this is important shit, rather than a means to tire out rambunctious twelve year olds. I was looked at funny when I told them that the young son doesn't play unless he is on the honor roll. They thought that I was putting too many demands on him.

The real kicker was how one of the parents began explaining to me that he was certain that the money and effort that he was putting into his kids sports would have a big payoff when it came down to scholarship time. You see, the father actually was worried about the ROI (return on investment) for the money he was putting into his kid.

The sad part is, his kid is a good kid, he just want to be a nerd. He is much more interested in talking science to me than talking football. He really isn't very athletic, but at this age, who can tell?

Things are getting way out of hand in youth sports. I am really happy this is my last year coaching.

An Unnatural Fetish

In the act of cleaning the kitchen today, I have come to the unwelcome conclusion that I maintain a completely irrational need to acquire Rubbermaid products.

Fortunately, this obsession has yet to make any ventures into the realm of sexuality, but I think that I will keep a close eye on it.

Anyone aware of any twelve step programs?

Seven Percent

The foreclosure rate for home in America is now about 7%. Thats around 1 of 15 houses.

I would feel some pity for these folks, but I just can't bring myself around to any true empathy. They took out a major obligation of debt, and then lost the means to pay it back. Big deal, you give the shit back, take your lumps, and don't act too surprised when folks aren't all that thrilled about loaning you money.

The real problem here is one of perception. It would appear that folks think that when they sign a mortgage, the house is theirs. No folks, the house is the banks, you just get to live there, maintain it, pay the taxes, and mow the lawn until you pay the bank back its money.

You lose your job, you lose your ability to pay back the bank. But for Christ's sake, just suck it up and go find living arrangements that you can afford. There is no moral downside to living in an apartment, it is just less "nice". Who the hell told you that squatting in a subdivision, surrounded by other drones was your constytooshunal right?

You see, it is just living arrangements. It is of about the same moral importance as the underwear brand that you choose. Just because you get sold a bill of goods by some slick haired, big-toothed real estate slut doesn't mean that the house is directly related to your self worth or societal worth. Walk away if you have to and fuck the banks.

Because they will most certainly try to fuck you.

Michael Vick

He did the crime.

He has done his time.

Leave the guy alone and let him put his life back together.

Constitoooshunal Dreems

A conservative vision of a perfect health care system.



Thanks to bodiciah t rentlord III

Takin' the week off

I'm kinda sick of the bile and calumny that is trying to pass itself off as thought lately...I need to take a break.

Have a good one..maybe I'll cheer up and find my groove, maybe not.

A Loyal Opposition

“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
Oliver Cromwell


We have morphed into an all or nothing society. A assemblage of vain and obsessive persons too self-centered to see any distinction at all between what they want and what the nation needs.

We have no Burke and No Pitt. We have no Jefferson and no Washington. We seem to have no party that recognizes the other party as maintaining either good intention or adequate intelligence.

But the parties merely reflect the attitudes of the population. We are going through a major recession/depression and what everyone is worried about is how they will maintain their status symbols and their cherished role of consumer. The devil take the hindmost.

What everyone seems to focus on is their cherished fetishes. The left has it's pathetic desire to smother-mother everyone and everything. The right has it's sad little attachment to the desire to do whatever the fuck they wish to do with no one telling them otherwise.

I would strongly suggest that we all grow up. To respectfully disagree with someone about political goals is the mark of an adult. To do it with style and thought is the mark of statesman.

What I hear in blogs and in the media and from the mouths of friends are the rantings of spoiled children.

Demonizing your opponent is the mark of a savage.

Grow up

Getting Stale

This isn't a rant, it is a ramble.

I for one hope that the Gotterdammerung that the folks who haunt the gloomy side of the blogosphere espouse never occurs.

I admit that I am not one of your run-of-the mill, garden variety preppers. I only have two weapons, I don't intend to bug out, and I am more concerned about organization after the fall than the desire to live through it at all costs.

But most of all, I would like to think that we will be able to muddle through and come to grips with a new world in a manner that doesn't require war or oppression. Granted, currently I would assign the probability of such an event as fairly low (<20%), but damnit, it does exist, so by-God, I am rooting for it.

I do read quite a bit of the hard-rights take on the current administration. In a sense, I here a lot of my Father's voice in the feelings coming out of this crew. Dad hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt with the same passion as a lot of folks who currently hate Obama. He sold the country out to the socialists was Dad's favorite cry. He gave away the show at Yalta. His Wife was a lesbian...yada, yada, yada.

I really think that we are in a point similar to the situation faced by Hoover and FDR combined. Big business gets incredibly greedy and fucks things up. Like Hoover, Obama is trying to placate the big business types, but he will fail. Then, like Roosevelt, he will tilt the country toward socialism in order to glue things back together.

I can't see how it can work any other way. I am not thrilled with the process, but more of the same "freedom" that allowed the big boys to rape us isn't the answer. Letting folks starve without help from the government isn't the answer. Dismantling our industry and shipping it overseas so that big business can fuck over some other country's citizenry in order to make stuff for us to buy isn't the answer. Allowing the big health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry the ability to craft "health reform" isn't going to work.

So, it is showtime for the left folks. I know that it stinks, but sometime the taste of medicine is bad. The only real opposition to the entrenched corporate interests that rule our country is the political left. If we are going to survive as a country, we must break the fascistic grip of the corporations. Allowing them more freedom won't do the job. I don't like it, but it isn't forever.

We have gone through this cycle many times. Jackson is still despised in business schools and economic classes. The Roosevelt family is still hated. But after each of these little interludes of despised socialism the country crept back through the spectrum of political will. And each of these little journeys (about 80 years, thank you Professor Kondratieff) allowed us fifty or so years where things were reasonably in balance. That is where we will start seeing some green shoots, but that period of time is about seven to twelve years away.

So, as much as all of us cringe and whine about it, it may be time to open our mouth, hold our nose, and take some really rancid, foul tasting medicine.

Piggies

So, consider for a moment the chart that I pulled down from one of the money-grubber sites. The one above is the price of hogs.

The price is low and it is time to line your freezer with piggies. The Cash and Carry by my place is selling 15 or so pound chubs of boneless pork sirloin for $0.93/Lb.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

• 6-8 lb. pork shoulder/pork butt
• 2 large onions, Chopped Fine
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup Dark beer
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup tomato paste
• 5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 6 tbsp mustard
• 4 tsp paprika
• 4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp ground black pepper

1. Place onion on the bottom of your slow cooker. Place pork shoulder, trimmed of any obvious excess fat, into slow cooker on top of onions. pour on the dark beer
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients to form the barbecue sauce. Feel free to adjust salt and pepper to taste. Pour half of the sauce over the pork and cover. Set remaining sauce aside.
3. Cook over low heat for about 10 hours
   
4. Remove pork to a large bowl and shred with two forks. Transfer meat back into slow cooker and cook for a bit, until meat has soaked up the sauce.
   
5. Serve on bread, topped with extra barbecue sauce.

Wanting to believe

It has become a watchword in our society. A secure future, a secure homeland, a secure retirement, a secure investment....the list goes on and on. Security as a safety net where we never need suffer the indignities that we see ourselves as above.

But the truth of the matter is that there is no safety in the world, never has been, never will be. We can pull away from the "nasty, brutish, and short" but it is always back there lurking in the background. Folks seem to forget that.

I guess that I am finally disillusioned by the way that folks have been handling thngs lately. The folks who have lost their jobs or who have been pushed down the corporate food chain haven't started changing their lives, they seem to lie there, caught up in the opium dreams of getting back to the way things were.

I think that folks have to get over this. Even we preppers are trying desperately to lock some security down. Folks, it is impossible, the next years will be how well you can ride the whirlwind. A house and car and payments aren't going to help a bunch, what you are going to need is adaptability and a big set of brass ones. Some food in the basement and some weps ain't going to take you there, but what it will do is provide ante for the game.

So when you prep, don't get to attached to the fetishes that are your preps. I see as much chance that you will have to ditch them as you will have a chance to use them.

Watch this whole thing

This is just too good

Of course your taxes are going to go up

Duh.

Bushie and Bam have spent money like horny sailors in a whorehouse.

Did you really think that you were not going to pay the bill?

So: for your reading pleasure, some quotes from my favorite curmudgeon, Robert Heinlein:

"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck. "

or

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

or

Political tags—such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, conservative, and so forth—are never basic criteria.

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
by Robert A. Heinlein

Thoughts on the Epicurian

One of my favorite writers is over at the Epicurian Dealmaker. He got into a bit of a spat recently due to developing a hypothesis about the direct relationship between the size of a woman's breasts and the amount of time high-powered bankers will spend talking to her.

This completely reasonable hypothesis.

Needless to say, there was a spot of dissent from readers...I have taken the liberty of attaching a couple of twitter responses to the article in question.

moorehn @EpicureanDeal "Either that, or she has really nice tits." That's in bad taste. She's a professional journalist and that's demeaning.
about 17 hours ago from web in reply to EpicureanDeal

moorehn @epicureandeal Not to mention that the only spur for your idiotic leering seems to be that she wrote an article that you read.
about 16 hours ago from web

So here is my generally uncouth and plebeian take on this little drama.

At the end of the day, we have to discuss the current difference between the professional journalism and the professional whore. It is my opinion that there is currently no difference whatsoever between these two "professions". In truth, I feel that there are more ethics in the ranks of whores than there are in the ranks of "professional" journalists.

In a sense, that is why there are so many folks out there reading blogs. The "priesthood" of journalism is being recognized as the group of panderers and lackeys that toe the corporate line of the entrenched interests. Nothing good or true comes from the main stream media.

In a real sense, I sense that the journalists that make up the "media" are making the same doomed attempt as any clergy to define itself as the magisterium who defines truth. I think that they have already failed. They have their pathetic little "Journalists without Borders" and other such tripe, but in truth, they are nothing but grasping busybodies, generating sensation and hubris in equal measure.

So, in my opinion, when the Dealmaker refers to the breasts of a journalist, he is just recognizing the tools of her trade as a whore. No big deal

And, as a final note, hell yes men talk more to women with big tits....duh.

Seedin’

Today’s lesson is seed saving for spinach. 

Growing seed for this is nothing but simplicity itself.  You plant a seed, let it grow until it turns brown and gets all dried out

Pour the seeds into a colander and allow all the chaff to winnow off by tossing it up in the air.

At the end you get a bag of seeds for the next year.

Woof Woof

Maybe the heat fried my brain, I have no ideas for something to write about that is not just yada yada yada.

But, the truth of the matter, a lot of the kvetching that I am known for is getting old for now. The other shoe still hasn't dropped and we are just hanging here, waiting for the government to spin us another yarn about how they have saved us.

I suppose that now is just a time to wait and prep. I think that the boys and I will go out to check out the blackberry status and start getting ready to pick a bunch of them for the winter. The tomatoes are starting to come on. The first cucumber came off. Watermelon from Hermiston is cheap.

So, we are in the dog days of summer. Time to start thinking about what is needful while things are slow.