Like I said back in January, Virginia's next governor will not be a Dem.
McDonnell won big. Now, will he waste our money chasing after marriage amendments and fighting Planned Parenthood? Not as much of a slam dunk but I say YES, he will waste our money attempting to legislate morality. Virginia knows it too, that's why turnout was so poor among indies.
Full disclosure: I did not bother to vote. But if I did vote it would've probably been for Cuccinelli for AG and "none of the above" for governor.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
I ride Park City
For anyone who just wants to get away from the madness...
The soundtrack to this trailer is All In It by British Sea Power.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Of peak credit and de-leveraging...
Mish wrote about the topic of Peak Credit a while back...
"Peak credit has been reached. That final wave of consumer recklessness created the exact conditions required for its own destruction. The housing bubble orgy was the last hurrah. It is not coming back and there will be no bigger bubble to replace it. Consumers and banks have both been burnt, and attitudes have changed.It took nearly 80 years for people to get as reckless as they did in 1929. 80 years! Few are still alive that went through the great depression. No one listened to them. That is the nature of the game. The odds of a significant bout of inflation now are about the same as they were in 1929. Next to none.Children whose parents are being destroyed by debt now, will keep those memories for a long time."
Anyone unfamiliar with Mish should get familiar quick. His attacks on conventional wisdom are refreshing, entertaining, educational, and potentially lucrative.
Surprisingly, I've only seen one chief executive mention anything that jibes with the peak credit theory. Here's Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:
"We’re certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions. The perspective I would bring is not one of recession. Rather, the economy is resetting to lower level of business and consumer spending based largely on the reduced leverage in economy."
How's that for spin?
"Peak credit has been reached. That final wave of consumer recklessness created the exact conditions required for its own destruction. The housing bubble orgy was the last hurrah. It is not coming back and there will be no bigger bubble to replace it. Consumers and banks have both been burnt, and attitudes have changed.It took nearly 80 years for people to get as reckless as they did in 1929. 80 years! Few are still alive that went through the great depression. No one listened to them. That is the nature of the game. The odds of a significant bout of inflation now are about the same as they were in 1929. Next to none.Children whose parents are being destroyed by debt now, will keep those memories for a long time."
Anyone unfamiliar with Mish should get familiar quick. His attacks on conventional wisdom are refreshing, entertaining, educational, and potentially lucrative.
Surprisingly, I've only seen one chief executive mention anything that jibes with the peak credit theory. Here's Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:
"We’re certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions. The perspective I would bring is not one of recession. Rather, the economy is resetting to lower level of business and consumer spending based largely on the reduced leverage in economy."
How's that for spin?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Who at the IRS told Geithner he didn't have to pay penalties?
Was it this c*cksucker?
"Douglas Shulman became the 47th Commissioner of Internal Revenue and began his five-year term on March 24, 2008. He presides over the nation's tax administration system, which collects approximately $2.4 trillion in tax revenue that funds most government operations and public services. He manages an agency of over 100,000 employees and a budget of approximately $11 billion.
As Commissioner, Shulman has emphasized a balanced program between taxpayer service and tax enforcement. The IRS goals are improving service to make voluntary compliance easier for taxpayers while at the same time enforcing the law to make sure everyone meets their obligation to pay taxes."
"Douglas Shulman became the 47th Commissioner of Internal Revenue and began his five-year term on March 24, 2008. He presides over the nation's tax administration system, which collects approximately $2.4 trillion in tax revenue that funds most government operations and public services. He manages an agency of over 100,000 employees and a budget of approximately $11 billion.
As Commissioner, Shulman has emphasized a balanced program between taxpayer service and tax enforcement. The IRS goals are improving service to make voluntary compliance easier for taxpayers while at the same time enforcing the law to make sure everyone meets their obligation to pay taxes."
Here's a snippet from IRS.gov on late-payment penalties.
"The penalty for paying late is 0.5 percent per month, up to 25 percent of the unpaid amount due."
Geithner could potentially owe an additional 25% * $46,000 = $11,500. That's no small peanuts to me.
The IRS does waive penalties for certain reasons. Let's explore those reasons...
"Waiver of Penalties
The IRS recognizes many people drop out of the system because of personal problems, including serious illness, a death in the family, or loss of financial records in a natural disaster. Depending on the situation, informing the IRS why returns have not been filed could result in a waiver of penalties."
Apparently "I work for the New York Fed" counts as a personal problem.
Does anyone out there still wonder why I'm so bitter, so angry, so f*cking pissed off?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
8-minute field dress... holy moly
Don't go calling PETA yet. This is a skill too few folks know. And it's not as simple as it looks. Some guides advise you to clamp off the anus (rubber band, string, etc) before pulling it thru the body cavity to prevent contamination. This guy's method with the winch/table setup appears much more efficient.
Virginia's next governor will NOT be a Democrat
Some calls are just too easy not to make. The collapse of the mortgage market and nationalization of the GSEs, Obama stomping McCain in the general, the Patriots suffering a heart-breaking (to their fans) loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl.
Without Bush's neo-"con" administration around to push moderates away from their brand of imperialism, the unabashedly big government Dems stand no chance of retaining their residence in Virginia's governor's mansion.
It really is that simple.
The Dems can throw wunderkind McAuliffe, grassroots Moran, dumb-like-a-fox Deeds, Jesus F*cking Christ, John Wayne, whomever at the GOP in Virginia. It does not matter. Without Bush and his interventionist cronies screwing up our country on the national stage day in and day out, there is nothing to motivate the moderates to vote higher taxes for themselves and welfare freebies for others heading into a Depression. Nothing.
Now unless McDonnell pulls a George Allen and drops an n-bomb on the new POTUS, the pro-life pro-death penalty (how's that for irony) attorney general will be the next Virginia governor.
The one wild-card (aside from an n-bomb on youtube) would be a third party fiscal conservative siphon like Russ Potts or Bob Marshall... but I have not heard a peep from either camp about it yet so I'm sticking with McDonnell.
Without Bush's neo-"con" administration around to push moderates away from their brand of imperialism, the unabashedly big government Dems stand no chance of retaining their residence in Virginia's governor's mansion.
It really is that simple.
The Dems can throw wunderkind McAuliffe, grassroots Moran, dumb-like-a-fox Deeds, Jesus F*cking Christ, John Wayne, whomever at the GOP in Virginia. It does not matter. Without Bush and his interventionist cronies screwing up our country on the national stage day in and day out, there is nothing to motivate the moderates to vote higher taxes for themselves and welfare freebies for others heading into a Depression. Nothing.
Now unless McDonnell pulls a George Allen and drops an n-bomb on the new POTUS, the pro-life pro-death penalty (how's that for irony) attorney general will be the next Virginia governor.
The one wild-card (aside from an n-bomb on youtube) would be a third party fiscal conservative siphon like Russ Potts or Bob Marshall... but I have not heard a peep from either camp about it yet so I'm sticking with McDonnell.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Of buggy whips and Wall Street...
This post is an idea-in-progress about Wall Street's obsolescence at the hands of: 1) real-time information exchange via the 'net, 2) Wall Street criminality, 3) ?
Pardon the sloppy blogmanship.
Pardon the sloppy blogmanship.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Why are we paying GSE execs so GODD*MNED much?
Fannie Mae's CFO is set to earn $625K in salary this year.
"The compensation plan for the veteran finance chief, who formerly was at the Harford Financial Services Group and Cendant Corp., also includes a cash bonus provision focusing on both corporate and individual performance goals for 2009, and a long-term deferred-cash incentive that individual performance and market-compensation levels will determine. That will vest over two years, with 50 percent payable in early 2010 and the rest in 2011."
And somehow the geniuses that negotiated his salary determined that "long-term" meant he had to wait two whole years. People sometimes ask me why I'm so salty, so bitter, so f*cking pissed off. Well, there you go.
We, the taxpayers, own the GSEs. It's no longer an implied ownership. The US taxpayer backs their debt, accept it as fact. So why are their executives getting paid private salaries for public risk? The SES pay schedule for 2008 tops out at $172.2K. You figure the SES'ers give themselves on average about $25K annual bonus (trust me on that figure, seen it with my own eyes) so let's round off their annual compensation to $200K. That's not even 33% of what Fannie's CFO is guaranteed to earn.
Crock of SH*T. F*CK them all. I hope all these ASSH*LES die early deaths and wind up on Edgar Alpo's Good Riddance blog.
"The compensation plan for the veteran finance chief, who formerly was at the Harford Financial Services Group and Cendant Corp., also includes a cash bonus provision focusing on both corporate and individual performance goals for 2009, and a long-term deferred-cash incentive that individual performance and market-compensation levels will determine. That will vest over two years, with 50 percent payable in early 2010 and the rest in 2011."
And somehow the geniuses that negotiated his salary determined that "long-term" meant he had to wait two whole years. People sometimes ask me why I'm so salty, so bitter, so f*cking pissed off. Well, there you go.
We, the taxpayers, own the GSEs. It's no longer an implied ownership. The US taxpayer backs their debt, accept it as fact. So why are their executives getting paid private salaries for public risk? The SES pay schedule for 2008 tops out at $172.2K. You figure the SES'ers give themselves on average about $25K annual bonus (trust me on that figure, seen it with my own eyes) so let's round off their annual compensation to $200K. That's not even 33% of what Fannie's CFO is guaranteed to earn.
Crock of SH*T. F*CK them all. I hope all these ASSH*LES die early deaths and wind up on Edgar Alpo's Good Riddance blog.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
MasterLock's Python wins the recurring, non-periodic "Awesome Tool" award
After someone broke into and tried to steal my truck, I've been researching different visible deterrents that would prevent someone from even bothering to try to steal my vehicle. There are several options: a flashing alarm light, the Club, I even read somewhere that a guy would partially inflate his airbag. But the one item that really caught my eye is the Python cinching cable lock from MasterLock.
Like all auto-theft deterrents, it is easily beaten. You can spray foam into a car alarm siren, hacksaw thru a steering wheel to remove the Club, knife a partially inflated airbag, or spend $3.99 on bolt cutters to remove the steel-cabled Python. But how many car thieves lug around bolt cutters? I guess if they were a reformed bike thief that had a hard time letting go of old habits, then they may have the right tool with them.
So, I bought one from the local hardware store for ~$25. It is badass. You wrap it around the steering column, then cinch it tight to take up any slack. It won't uncinch without the key. The best part is how it covers the ignition cylinder keyhole to prevent any damage from prying tools. It also provides the column with mediocre protection, unless they have some snips to clip the hard plastic out from under the cable... but again, would they carry that tool normally when out prowling for cars? And the best part of this wunder-tool, its highly visible yellow housing sits perfectly atop the steering column.
Of course, rewiring the ignition so a switch redirects the voltage to the horn is still my personal favorite theft prevention trick (thief starts car, car honks/doesn't start) but that won't stop a dirtbag from destroying your window or door lock in the first place... which was the whole goal of my quest and reason for the award. Well done, MasterLock.
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