Get the idea? Yeah. If you listen to some members of Congress (and that idiot in chief), you'd think we're all doomed.
This old girl has bailout burnout in addition to being pretty damned torqued about this Wall Street Business.
Like some greedy hedge fund manager, I've been gobbling up info on this entire fiasco trying to figure it all out.
I think I may have it (altho I could be totally mistaken) - it all boils down to it's time for some over-leveraged peeps to pay the piper and they can't so they want to cry. (
Over leveraged - buying stuff you can't afford with money you don't have).
Now this "over leveraged" business applies to Main Street as well as Wall Street altho, in fairness, I think mostly Wall Street greed is to blame. Yeah, I know a lot of people who bought McMansions they couldn't afford and refinanced the house to buy a big new SUV. But frankly that's only about 10% of the problem (from what I understand).
And we don't need $700billion (with a B) to solve 10% of the problem. We probably only need 1/2 of that (at most) to pay off all of the bad mortgages. So why the ginormous price tag? You tell me. (Hank Paulson owns stock in Goldman Sachs, tho. Think that might have something to do with it?)
Seems some greedy bastards would like to make up for their over-leveraged losses. Since when do the taxpayers support hedge fund managers? (Which, BTW, most of us po' taxpayers don't make enough money to join a hedge fund in the first place).
That is, they must earn a minimum amount of money annually and have a
net worth of more than $1 million, along with a significant
amount of investment knowledge. You can think of hedge funds
as mutual funds for the super rich. (definition from investopedia.com)
You won't let me go to the party but you want me to foot the bill because you trashed the place? I don't think so.
So what about those people who took out loans on their houses to pay for medical care? Well, I believe the cost for universal healthcare was projected to be about $150 Billion.
Hmmm. Well, if we take $350 billion and buy up simply "bad" mortgages and take $150 billion to pay for universal health care so nobody else can lose their house because of medical conditions, we'd still have $200 billion "left over" to buy, oh, I dunno, how about some decent highway repair or another "stimulus" check?
Yeah, maybe it's simplistic and I hate to break it to those in Congress, but that's pretty much how the prols in the street see it as well. I didn't get us into this mess, I didn't get invited to the party but now you want me to pay for it? WTF kind of deal is that? And who would be dumb enough to take it? (Excepting Dumbya and some members of Congress).
And you'd best believe I was writing, calling AND faxing my Congressmen and Senators. Even those from other districts. Don't put lipstick and a wig on this pig and try to sell it as Elizabeth Taylor, either. Oh, no.
Now, look, I'm pretty socially liberal (yes, I said the "l" word. Deal). But when it comes to money - especially MY money, I'm probably more conservative than anyone on Wall Street or Congress (but I guess that might not be saying much). OK - I'm a tightwad when it comes to money. I tend to hoard and not spend.
So it rather mystifies me why some people think they can spend, spend, spend and never have the bill come due. Or buy junk and expect it to work. Doesn't that go against all logic? (Even when I throws a party, I pays cash up FRONT for the goodies. What a novel idea! Cash! Up front!)
Yes, I've got money in a 401K and stocks. And, yeah, it probably lost half of it's value but I can't complain. Really, I can't. Maybe because it will be another 30 years before I can retire and in 30 years it will regain more than the 800 or so points it lost on Monday.
The bill sucked and it was killed. There are smarter economists out there than me that have many good ideas of how to fix this problem without spending a DIME. Why isn't Congress listening to them? Maybe they are having a hard time getting heard above all the lobbyists? I dunno. But this bailout (which is what it is) is bad, bad, bad.
I am adamantly opposed to it. That is my "political" message for the month.
Labels: bailout, politics
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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 2:48 PM
Sunday the area got hit with the winds from Hurrican Ike. No rain, just 75MPH winds ripping up trees and downing power lines. It was kinda scary.
We get tornados but they are usually pretty contained and don't last for hours. This thing blew over several counties for a couple of hours.
My power went out on Sunday right as my washer filled with water. I kept thinking the electric would come back on and by 6pm I realized I should probably get those clothes out and dry before they started to mold. So I had to hang them in the bathroom because they would have blown away outside.
I guess camping has sort of made me think of not having electric as "no big deal" but others seemed to be in a right panic about it.
One lady downstairs kept broadcasting to the building from the parking lot what stores had ice and gas and food (she was receiving reports on her cell phone from her kids who had fanned out across town). I just laughed. People freaking act like it's the end of the world if there's no power for a few hours. What's the big deal? At least there's clean running water and it's not freezing ass cold or burning up hot.
So Monday I get up when I get up (about 7am) and wash off a bit in the sink and go in to work. The streets are DESERTED (which was really odd) except for a bunch of debris and some downed trees and power lines.
Then I get to a White Castle - OMG!!! People were lined out the door and down the STREET to get in that place. WTF??? And the gas station across the street had lines for gas that must have been an hour long!! I just shook my head and kept driving.
Sure, I was hungry since I wanted a hot breakfast and didn't think I had time to make one (I had the camp stove all set up and ready but since I couldn't tell what time it was I just left and figured I'd get something out of a vending machine or the cafeteria when I got to work).
I get into work and there are hardly any cars here. Nobody is on my floor at ALL. I was alone on my floor for about 2 hours. It was very odd. People started calling and asking if the building had electric and "where is everybody?" Yeah, it does and the hell if I know.
Other people started drifting in but only a handful.
I went to my violin lesson after work and that was ok. Then I figured I'd stop by a local mini-mart and pick up some ice. Well, there was NO ICE ANYWHERE I stopped on the way home. NONE. And no cold Diet Coke. But that's ok. Because we still have clean running water.
I need to wash my hair and do the dishes (I had loaded up the dishwasher on Sunday figuring I'd run that after the laundry had washed but then the electric went off before I got the chance. Dishes be NASTY!) so I fired up the campstove and my sterno and started boiling the water.
After about 2 hours, I had the dishes done, the hair washed, the legs shaved and the supper cooked. I light up some oil lamps and sat down to read a book. Then a strange thing happened. I began to hear people - my neighbors - outside talking. They were just sitting out there, talking like we do when we're camping. They were laughing and carrying on - it was nice to hear them out there. Apparently this happened all over town. With no TVs or video games, kids were playing outside and neighbors were visiting with each other! Imagine that!
So I sat there listening to them talk and I played my drum a bit (hoping that maybe someone somewhere would answer but they did not) and it was quite nice.
Tuesday the electric still wasn't on but I went into work figuring it would be on by the time I got home. Well, on the way into work I was listening to the radio and it said "some areas will be without power until this weekend."
Oh, hell to the NO on that! Not because I miss TV or anything (I don't watch it except on the weekends when I'm around) but I didn't want all the meat I had bought to go bad. The milk was doomed (but that's ok because we'll make cheese out of it tonight or tomorrow) and most everything else would be ok except for the meat in the freezer.
So I worked about 1/2 day and called the liquor store I frequent in The Mother Land and asked them if they had ice. Yep. Plenty. HA! I figured if I could load up on ice, booze and fags (for mom), I could sit this out for a great long while (at least two weeks) without much annoyance.
I got my ice, my booze (Murphy's Irish Stout - making bread to go with that cheese and cook some of the meat in) and mom's fags.
Then, just as I get home, the electric comes on! I throw the still wet clothes back in the washer and start pulling everything out of the freezer. If it was cold but thawed, it got cooked. The chicken was still frozen pretty good so I threw it in the cooler with some other stuff that was still ok.
I cooked like a fiend and just as I got done with the last dish and the washer ended it's final spin, the electric went off again.
HA!! It didn't matter. The food was saved, the beer was cold and the water was hot! Smug as a disgraced CEO with a golden parachute, I laid down and took a nap.
Then I met my BFF for dinner. When I got home about 9pm, the electric was back on. Of course, I don't trust it to STAY on until everyone else gets power but as long as I have clean running water I'll cope.
Now this guy at work was completely TRAUMATIZED by the whole event. No, nobody at his house got hurt or any damage to house, car or anything but he couldn't STAND not having a TV and his kids whined and complained the entire time (since there was no school he was stuck with them).
I'm like "this is the worst thing you've experienced? WTF?? Are you serious, Mary?" He just couldn't abide by not having a TV or charge his cell phone or have a video game to keep his kids busy. I'm like "that's when you get out the buckets and tubs and put their asses to WORK washing their clothes!"
He was miserable that he couldn't have hot coffee (I'm like - did you ever hear of a GRILL??? You know you can make coffee on the grill!) and there is a ton of laundry and dishes and rotten food. Pathetic, I tell you. Really.
I asked him why he didn't cook or make coffee on the grill and he said it was too much trouble!!! WTF??? It's TOO MUCH TROUBLE to FEED yourself? I can't believe it. People like that gonna starve when the shit REALLY hits the fan (which will be shortly, I imagine).
Seriously, people, you can't take the "trouble" to feed yourself so just what in the hell do you think is going to happen to you when the party's over? I ain't gonna feed yo' sorry ass unless you're offering something in return that I NEED. Like clean water or Diet Coke or "protection". Don't have none o' that? Then you're outta luck!
(1) comments
The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 3:35 PM
It's Friday and I'm glad. I'm completely worn out and I don't feel like I've even done much of anything.
I've managed to screw up my GC run so I'll have to figure out what the hell happened there and get the materials to match up. Half-wit!
On Wednesday I had a skating lesson and inadvertently almost landed a double lutz! WTF??? Seriously. I have a bad habit of trying to my second jump in a combination BEFORE I've landed the first one. Normally I would just fall but in this particular instance I rotated again which freaked me out.
I was trying to do a lutz loop since my lutzes were looking quite lovely (nice, high and effortless). So I'm in the air and I'm thinking I've been there too long so I'm just going to pull in for my loop, right? Well, wrong. I wasn't on Terra Firma at the time so I continued to rotate. I came out forwards (which is 1 1/2 revolutions). Had I actually KNEW what I was doing and pulled in tighter, I'm sure I could've gotten that extra 1/2 rotation.
Then I would have peed myself in excitement and my pro would have made me try it again. It's just not acceptable to land something ONCE. Oh, no! One must be able to land said jump on DEMAND. No freak accidents accepted.
But at least I know what it's supposed to feel like (if I get daring and decide to take my life in my hands). It's not really as hard as one would think. It's just push off your front foot and lean back into it. Weird but that's what it feels like to me.
Then yesterday I skated again. Today I was wanting to skate after work but my old bones are so damned tired I don't know if I could even get my skates ON. And all of the rain isn't helping, either. I just want to go home, curl up in a dew ball and read a book. I think that's what's going to be on my agenda for tonight.
Yes, I need to go to the gym and yes, I need to get on the ice but I'm damned tired. And I have a full weekend planned so I need to rest up for that. Next weekend is more camping and I hope to have some new recipies for the Dutch Oven before then. (I know I will, I just need to get the ingredients together).
So my butt is dragging today and I'm having serious focus issues because I screwed up my GC run. UGH!! I've done nothing productive today except answer email and sort assignments. But at least I got that much done. (That can take all day sometimes, depending on what's happening).
And my belly is making hideous gurguling noises that are quite disturbing. It's probably a direct result of all the shredded wheat I've been eating. Must stop that.
My knee is acutally feeling quite a bit better. So much better that I did want to skate 3 days in a row on it. Until the rest of my body pooped out (literally, in this case).
The Creature is back home where he belongs. I'm surprised someone didn't call the cops on Friday when I was loading up the car to go camping. He sat out on the balcony and screamed like someone was trying to murder him. Serious separation anxiety!
On Sunday when I stopped by the house to drop off the yurt for safe keeping, he wouldn't even give me the time of day. His furry ass HID from me! Like I was going to snatch him up and spirit him away again! HA! That mutt!
Labels: skating
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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 1:40 PM
This past weekend I was at the last Baronial camping event of the season. It's always so much fun and yet sad because it pretty much means the camping season is over for most people (there are a few others I plan on attending but I don't know if "everyone" will be there).
It was a good time. Saturday I taught my class and that went very well. After my class I started getting the food ready for the potluck at about 6pm.
The last few years, I've participated in the potluck instead of buying the dinner they serve. This year I decided to go all out and try a new recipe over the open fire. Here it is (and how to cook it over an open fire). The recipe is from
Dutch Oven Secrets and damn, is it YUMMY!!
You'll need:
Approximately 5 lbs of potatoes, washed but not skinned and cut into thin slices
1 large sweet onion
2 lbs of bacon
2 cups cheddar cheese
salt, pepper and rosemary or basil (whichever you prefer)
about 20 charcoal briquettes
1 cast iron dutch oven with lid and a piece of heavy-duty tin foil to cover over the lid and down the sides of the dutch oven.
Fire up your coals and get them hot. Once the flames have subsided, put the dutch oven on the coals and begin frying the bacon (you can also fry the bacon over a camp stove if you prefer. If cooking the bacon over a camp stove, fire up the coals when the bacon is about 1/2 way done).
Once the bacon is good an crispy, remove 1/3 of the bacon and the bacon grease and sit aside.
Over the bacon and grease left in the dutch oven, place a layer of potatoes then add a layer of onions Add salt, pepper and other seasonings as desired.
Pour a little bacon grease over this layer and add another layer of bacon, potatoes, onions and seasonings. Continue to layer the potaotes and bacon until the pot is full.
Place the tin foil over the lid of the dutch oven and make a little lip out of the foil. This will keep the coals on the lid and prevent any ash from getting into the food as it cooks.
Place the dutch oven over about 10 hot coals. Put another 8 or 10 coals on top of the dutch oven lid. Let it bake for @ 40 minutes or so (depending on how hot the coals are). When you can smell it, it is done.
When the potatoes are done, take a small broom and flick off the tinfoil with the coals. This will leave your lid clean and no ashes will get into the food.
Remove the lid and add the cheese. Put the lid back on to let the cheese melt.
Enjoy the gooey cholesterol carb laden goodness contained in the dutch oven!
~~~~
These were a big hit at the potluck and I have to say I was rather impressed with cooking on the coals. It worked much better than I had imagined.
The menu for Saturday's feast was The Potatoes (recipe above), grilled chops, grilled chicken, grilled bacon burgers, sauteed spinach with mushrooms and onions, corn on the cob and bread. YUM!
Sunday morning's potluck breakfast (because all of that storytelling, joking and debauchery can work up an appetite!) was: Omlettes (I'll give the recipe for that below - it's pretty damned nifty!), bacon (are we seeing a theme here?), sausage, french toast and cinnamon rolls. Oh, and lots of coffee (for those who drink it).
~~~~
Omlettes in a bag over the campstove (or fire if you have one hot enough to boil water). You'll need:
2 eggs
salt, pepper
large pot of boiling water
a small ziploc FREEZER bag (MUST be a FREEZER bag)
whatever you'd like in your omlette.
Place a large pot (about 12 quarts) on the stove/campfire. Fill pot with water until about 3/4 full.
Bring water to the boil.
Break the eggs into the freezer bag and mash them up.
Add salt, pepper and any ingredients left over from the night before that you want (bacon, cheese, onion, salsa, spinach, mushrooms, corn - whatever you'd like)
Mix up the ingredients by gently kneading the closed bag.
Open the bag and press all of the air out. Reseal the bag and drop into the boiling water.
In about 2 minutes your omlette will be done!
~~~~
Let it be known that we do NOT go hungry when camping! Oh, no. And now that I've discovered some open-fire recipies, I'm sure I'll be having to hit the gym more and more!
Labels: Camping recipes
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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 5:14 PM
And I have a crazed hummingbird that flies at my head.
It's a she hummingbird. You'd think she would not attack the head that feeds her but no. And she scares me when she flies at my head and I hear this really loud "BZZZZZZZ!" in front of my face.
The first time she did this I thought she was a bee and flicked my pony tail in that direction. Then she flew at my face which caused me to squeak and swat at her. I didn't hit her but I thought she was a big old horsefly or something and those things BITE.
Once I realized that it was a hummingbird I've tried not to jump or swat at her any more.
To add to the fun, I've also got The Creature! Mom and Dad are getting the floor replaced and they didn't want the Flat Face to get upset or get locked in the bathroom so I volunteered to take him for a few days while the work is going on.
It took him a while to realize he wasn't just going for a ride and he'd better make the most of his temporary living conditions. He walked around for about an hour last night huffing and puffing and fretting. Then he chilled out and laid down on the kitchen floor. I had to wake him up later to take him out before I went to bed. I had to wake him up again this morning to take him out before I went to work.
He seems to have settled down. But he still tries to bark at anyone out walking around in the parking lot. Not his "eat them up" bark but more of his "hey, look" bark. Which is also different from his "let me out" bark and his "I'm hungry" bark.
And I had to clean some stuff up (put all my sewing stuff away) so he doesn't get hurt. It really doesn't need to be sitting out anyway but I piddle around with it when I get the time.
I've started taking violin lessons finally. After threatening for two years I've finally bitten the bullet. It should be interesting. I'm still playing the drum of course but I thought I'd give the violin a try. Why not?
Skating is going ok. My knee is finally starting to feel better altho it still gets pretty stiff after I skate. The other day I actually was on the ice for an hour and a half! I couldn't believe I didn't need oxygen or pass out!
I may try skating more sessions this year depending on how my knee feels. This getting older really sucks.
Work is ok. No massive hysteria and I have to say that's pretty nice. Oh, speaking of work - here's
a site where you can freelance yourself out over the internet if you are so inclined.
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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 9:34 AM
