Yes it’s Saturday morning, and yes, it’s ugly-raining outside, and it’s the season of peace and goodwill and you only have single-digit days left to do your Christmas shopping. You rightfully expect it to be one of the softest news days of the year. But we know all you HA addicts out there cannot help yourselves. On the off-chance one of us tireless scribes has somehow seen fit to post a new set of calumnies, buffoneries and outrages, you just have to click. Doncha…
We will try not to disappoint. There actually is a lot of stuff happening out there, for a Saturday in December. Maybe the ever-cynical powers that be are trying to slip things by us during the holidays, the way the Bushies like to disclose illegal initiatives and unconstitutional policies on Friday afternoons.
The Times trumpets an $8 million proposal by Gov. Gregoire to actually do something about physician/counselor sexual misconduct, a courageous act typical of a politician entering a re-election year. In one of those mercilessly cold-eyed observations that only hardened journalists have the guts to print, the story notes “Gregoire said several of her initiatives are in response to a 2006 Seattle Times investigation, ‘License to Harm,’ which brought the registered-counselor loophole to light.” Yes, let’s close that gaping loophole nearly two years after the fact while patting ourselves on the back without even the meekest challenge over why it took so damn long to do anything. After all, Gregoire’s failure to act last year might well have cost The Times a Pulitzer. We still eagerly await a newspaper investigation that does something to warn and protect readers from society’s ills in time to be meaningful, rather than react with high dudgeon to the damage done. But then, that might mean getting on the guv’s bad side, or the legislature’s, or…remind me, how did that “loophole” get into law in the first place?
Not that the P-I can’t wring hands with the best of them. Its lead story has to do with the mortgage-induced plight of an Iraq war veteran. (As if to provide a helping hand, the paper also offers a companion piece, 7 Tips to Sell Your Home. Tip No. 1: Have the local rag write a Page 1 story about it.) Nothing surprising, but give the P-I credit: Iraq war, mortgage crisis. D’ya think there could be a connection? We are left to connect the dots ourselves, of course, while marveling over riveting prose like: “For a soldier, the mortgage crisis is the same as for civilians, but also quite different.” Wow, who edits this stuff?
Lines like that kept folks like Will Durst from becoming a journalist, more’s the pity. One pimp-slap of Gov. Gregoire and he’d be back at the Eastlake Zoo, scanning the help-wanted ads. Local cynics of the Durst cloth will note the quiet resurrection of the waterfront tunnel boondoggle now that tunnel-basher and surface-option-backer Peter Steinbrueck is leaving the City Council. Yes, the public voted down a tunnel, but wait, that one was different. This one “would not follow the shoreline and would be deeper beneath downtown.” Jan Drago for one is on the case: “We need to make better use of the real estate we have … including our subterranean assets.”
What makes this all ironic as only Seattle’s incestuous little political circle can be is that Drago just last night, at Steinbrueck’s going-away party at City Hall, was singing paens to his “tireless passion” for preserving Seattle’s civic and environmental integrity: “Many times I would go into my office on weekends, and who would already be there but Peter,” she effused. No doubt trying to figure out how to counteract Drago’s latest Big Development rape-n-pillage scheme. Steinbrueck will, however, continue as one of Seattle’s biggest above-ground assets, teaching at the U.W. and writing a column for Crosscut.com, Drago having handed him a great initial topic.
Dec. 14, 2007 | WASHINGTON — The CIA held Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in several different cells when he was incarcerated in its network of secret prisons known as “black sites.” But the small cells were all pretty similar, maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was sometimes naked, and sometimes handcuffed for weeks at a time. In one cell his ankle was chained to a bolt in the floor. There was a small toilet. In another cell there was just a bucket. Video cameras recorded his every move. The lights always stayed on — there was no day or night. A speaker blasted him with continuous white noise, or rap music, 24 hours a day.
The guards wore black masks and black clothes. They would not utter a word as they extracted Bashmilah from his cell for interrogation — one of his few interactions with other human beings during his entire 19 months of imprisonment. Nobody told him where he was, or if he would ever be freed.
It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Bashmilah finally tried to slash his wrists with a small piece of metal, smearing the words “I am innocent” in blood on the walls of his cell. But the CIA patched him up.
So Bashmilah stopped eating. But after his weight dropped to 90 pounds, he was dragged into an interrogation room, where they rammed a tube down his nose and into his stomach. Liquid was pumped in. The CIA would not let him die.
On several occasions, when Bashmilah’s state of mind deteriorated dangerously, the CIA also did something else: They placed him in the care of mental health professionals. Bashmilah believes these were trained psychologists or psychiatrists. “What they were trying to do was to give me a sort of uplifting and to assure me,” Bashmilah said in a telephone interview, through an interpreter, speaking from his home country of Yemen. “One of the things they told me to do was to allow myself to cry, and to breathe.”
Last June, Salon reported on the CIA’s use of psychologists to aid with the interrogation of terrorist suspects. But the role of mental health professionals working at CIA black sites is a previously unknown twist in the chilling, Kafkaesque story of the agency’s secret overseas prisons.
Little about the conditions of Bashmilah’s incarceration has been made public until now. His detailed descriptions in an interview with Salon, and in newly filed court documents, provide the first in-depth, first-person account of captivity inside a CIA black site. Human rights advocates and lawyers have painstakingly pieced together his case, using Bashmilah’s descriptions of his cells and his captors, and documents from the governments of Jordan and Yemen and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to verify his testimony. Flight records detailing the movement of CIA aircraft also confirm Bashmilah’s account, tracing his path from the Middle East to Afghanistan and back again while in U.S. custody.
Bashmilah’s story also appears to show in clear terms that he was an innocent man. After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered.
http://www.salon.com/news/feat.....bashmilah/
They should give all the dirty money directly to the voters. It would get them the result they are looking for.
There are tunnels all over the world. Most big cities have several. Rail, highways, water, RER, Metro, and so on. There are many tunnels in the world entire under mountains, plains, waterlands, bays, oceans and various conditions of geology, including many places where glaciers were present in previous eras. Such as the entire Northern half of Europe.
A tunnel not on the waterfront would allow Seattle to have the waterfront park and have no ugly new Viaduct.
Why attack and dismiss this option reflexively with no facts?
Is building a tunnel for rail automatically wise, while building a tunnel for autos automatically is a “boondoggle” ?
Is anything for rail wise, and anything for autos stupid, automatically?
This appears not rational.
And why not a tunnel with autos and bus lanes or perhaps rail, too?
“season of peace and goodwill”
Just another Republican profit center.
So, Paul, how long have you been working for the Dino Rossi press office?
I’m fine with exploiting Seattle’s subterranean assets by building an under-downtown tunnel — as long as the people who want it pay for it, and leave the rest of us out of it. You never know … infrastructure like that might come in handy if a Roman legion shows up and we need a place to hide for a while. We rabbits know all about subterranean refuges; trust me, they work.
” … While he was away on his second deployment to war from 2006 to 2007, Barton, 34, his wife, Sarah, their two young sons and a third child on the way became caught in the subprime mortgage crisis.
‘Their small part of the American dream is a wood-frame $152,000 house bought three years ago for nothing down but with plans of fixing it up and reselling it. …
“Their mortgage payments went from $850 to $1,350 a month … [t]he family’s expenses on its total debts are more than $4,000 a month. The Bartons have maxed out their credit cards …. ‘When I call lenders … they say there is nothing they can do when they see my credit score,’ he said.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....ome15.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: When I was in the Army, we had an expression that described situations like this. It goes: “Sounds like a personal problem.”
Oh yeah, one more thing: “Barton says he wants no special favors, just some good advice from anyone out there.” Okay. Ready? Here goes: Next time, live within your means.
This guy’s problem has nothing to do with Iraq or being in the Army, and everything to do with lacking common sense. He thought he was going to buy a fixer-upper on a nothing-down adjustable-rate mortgage, make some cheap cosmetic improvements, and flip it for a big profit. Big surprise, it doesn’t work that way! And how the hell can any sentient being think he’ll accomplish a house renovation when he’s IN THE ARMY?!!! The job interferes with the time commitment such a project entails, if you know what I mean.
He doesn’t want advice, he wants someone to give him credit. Apparently he thinks the solution to getting himself overextended is to get himself even more overextended — either that, or he wants debt relief, which as we all know consists of someone else picking up the tab for the financial mess he created.
I’m sorry, but I have zero sympathy for fast-buck flippers who thought they were going to get rich with other people’s money at both ends (the borrowing end, and the buyer end). It doesn’t work that way in the real world. If it did, we’d all be billionaires.
There’s plenty of news today, but as often happens, it’s buried in the business pages.
“WASHINGTON — … Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke [is] besieged by … inflation data that may tie his hands as he tries to keep an economic slowdown from snowballing into recession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that consumer-price inflation jumped 0.8 percent last month …. That bumped inflation … up [to] 4.3 percent over the past 12 months. …
“It creates a dilemma. The economy is expected to slow early next year, and usually the Fed’s response would be to lower interest rates to spark economic activity. But that fuels inflation ….
” ‘… [T]he Fed’s job is becoming very difficult moving into 2008,’ said Kenneth Beauchemin, an economist … in Lexington, Mass. …
“The Fed soon may face stagnant economic growth and rising inflation at the same time, a scenario called stagflation. It plagued the 1970s ….”
Quoted under fair use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ion15.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The artifically low interest rates that propped up the staggering Bush Economy resulted in the mortgage mess, a 40% loss of the dollar’s value, and $98 oil. These interest rates were financial crack, and what we’re seeing now is the addict wanting another fix to keep himself going. This is going to get much uglier before things start to get better.
poor fat al, the ultimate loser:
Don Aitkin, PhD, Professor, social scientist, retired vice-chancellor and president, University of Canberra, Australia
William J.R. Alexander, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Civil and Biosystems Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Member, UN Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters, 1994-2000
Bjarne Andresen, PhD, physicist, Professor, The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Geoff L. Austin, PhD, FNZIP, FRSNZ, Professor, Dept. of Physics, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Timothy F. Ball, PhD, environmental consultant, former climatology professor, University of Winnipeg
Ernst-Georg Beck, Dipl. Biol., Biologist, Merian-Schule Freiburg, Germany
Sonja A. Boehmer-Christiansen, PhD, Reader, Dept. of Geography, Hull University, U.K.; Editor, Energy & Environment journal
Chris C. Borel, PhD, remote sensing scientist, U.S.
Reid A. Bryson, PhD, DSc, DEngr, UNE P. Global 500 Laureate; Senior Scientist, Center for Climatic Research; Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, of Geography, and of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin
Dan Carruthers, M.Sc., wildlife biology consultant specializing in animal ecology in Arctic and Subarctic regions, Alberta
R.M. Carter, PhD, Professor, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
Ian D. Clark, PhD, Professor, isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa
Richard S. Courtney, PhD, climate and atmospheric science consultant, IPCC expert reviewer, U.K.
Willem de Lange, PhD, Dept. of Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Science and Engineering, Waikato University, New Zealand
David Deming, PhD (Geophysics), Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma
Freeman J. Dyson, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, N.J.
Don J. Easterbrook, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Geology, Western Washington University
Lance Endersbee, Emeritus Professor, former dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Monasy University, Australia
Hans Erren, Doctorandus, geophysicist and climate specialist, Sittard, The Netherlands
Robert H. Essenhigh, PhD, E.G. Bailey Professor of Energy Conversion, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University
Christopher Essex, PhD, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Associate Director of the Program in Theoretical Physics, University of Western Ontario
David Evans, PhD, mathematician, carbon accountant, computer and electrical engineer and head of ‘Science Speak,’ Australia
William Evans, PhD, editor, American Midland Naturalist; Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame
Stewart Franks, PhD, Professor, Hydroclimatologist, University of Newcastle, Australia
R. W. Gauldie, PhD, Research Professor, Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean Earth Sciences and Technology, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Lee C. Gerhard, PhD, Senior Scientist Emeritus, University of Kansas; former director and state geologist, Kansas Geological Survey
Gerhard Gerlich, Professor for Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, Institut für Mathematische Physik der TU Braunschweig, Germany
Albrecht Glatzle, PhD, sc.agr., Agro-Biologist and Gerente ejecutivo, INTTAS, Paraguay
Fred Goldberg, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden
Vincent Gray, PhD, expert reviewer for the IPCC and author of The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of ‘Climate Change 2001, Wellington, New Zealand
William M. Gray, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University and Head of the Tropical Meteorology Project
Howard Hayden, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut
Louis Hissink MSc, M.A.I.G., editor, AIG News, and consulting geologist, Perth, Western Australia
Craig D. Idso, PhD, Chairman, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Arizona
Sherwood B. Idso, PhD, President, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, AZ, USA
Andrei Illarionov, PhD, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity; founder and director of the Institute of Economic Analysis
Zbigniew Jaworowski, PhD, physicist, Chairman – Scientific Council of Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw, Poland
Jon Jenkins, PhD, MD, computer modelling – virology, NSW, Australia
Wibjorn Karlen, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden
Olavi Kärner, Ph.D., Research Associate, Dept. of Atmospheric Physics, Institute of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics, Toravere, Estonia
Joel M. Kauffman, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
David Kear, PhD, FRSNZ, CMG, geologist, former Director-General of NZ Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Zealand
Madhav Khandekar, PhD, former research scientist, Environment Canada; editor, Climate Research (2003-05); editorial board member, Natural Hazards; IPCC expert reviewer 2007
William Kininmonth M.Sc., M.Admin., former head of Australia’s National Climate Centre and a consultant to the World Meteorological organization’s Commission for Climatology Jan J.H. Kop, MSc Ceng FICE (Civil Engineer Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers), Emeritus Prof. of Public Health Engineering, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands
Prof. R.W.J. Kouffeld, Emeritus Professor, Energy Conversion, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Salomon Kroonenberg, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Geotechnology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Hans H.J. Labohm, PhD, economist, former advisor to the executive board, Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands Institute of International Relations), The Netherlands
The Rt. Hon. Lord Lawson of Blaby, economist; Chairman of the Central Europe Trust; former Chancellor of the Exchequer, U.K.
Douglas Leahey, PhD, meteorologist and air-quality consultant, Calgary
David R. Legates, PhD, Director, Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware
Marcel Leroux, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Climatology, University of Lyon, France; former director of Laboratory of Climatology, Risks and Environment, CNRS
Bryan Leyland, International Climate Science Coalition, consultant and power engineer, Auckland, New Zealand
William Lindqvist, PhD, independent consulting geologist, Calif.
Richard S. Lindzen, PhD, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A.J. Tom van Loon, PhD, Professor of Geology (Quaternary Geology), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland; former President of the European Association of Science Editors
Anthony R. Lupo, PhD, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science, Dept. of Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Science, University of Missouri-Columbia
Richard Mackey, PhD, Statistician, Australia
Horst Malberg, PhD, Professor for Meteorology and Climatology, Institut für Meteorologie, Berlin, Germany
John Maunder, PhD, Climatologist, former President of the Commission for Climatology of the World Meteorological Organization (89-97), New Zealand
Alister McFarquhar, PhD, international economy, Downing College, Cambridge, U.K.
Ross McKitrick, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Guelph
John McLean, PhD, climate data analyst, computer scientist, Australia
Owen McShane, PhD, economist, head of the International Climate Science Coalition; Director, Centre for Resource Management Studies, New Zealand
Fred Michel, PhD, Director, Institute of Environmental Sciences and Associate Professor of Earth Sciences, Carleton University
Frank Milne, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Economics, Queen’s University
Asmunn Moene, PhD, former head of the Forecasting Centre, Meteorological Institute, Norway
Alan Moran, PhD, Energy Economist, Director of the IPA’s Deregulation Unit, Australia
Nils-Axel Morner, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm University, Sweden
Lubos Motl, PhD, Physicist, former Harvard string theorist, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
John Nicol, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physics, James Cook University, Australia
David Nowell, M.Sc., Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, former chairman of the NATO Meteorological Group, Ottawa
James J. O’Brien, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Meteorology and Oceanography, Florida State University
Cliff Ollier, PhD, Professor Emeritus (Geology), Research Fellow, University of Western Australia
Garth W. Paltridge, PhD, atmospheric physicist, Emeritus Professor and former Director of the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia
R. Timothy Patterson, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Earth Sciences (paleoclimatology), Carleton University
Al Pekarek, PhD, Associate Professor of Geology, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Dept., St. Cloud State University, Minnesota
Ian Plimer, PhD, Professor of Geology, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
Brian Pratt, PhD, Professor of Geology, Sedimentology, University of Saskatchewan
Harry N.A. Priem, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Planetary Geology and Isotope Geophysics, Utrecht University; former director of the Netherlands Institute for Isotope Geosciences
Alex Robson, PhD, Economics, Australian National University Colonel F.P.M. Rombouts, Branch Chief – Safety, Quality and Environment, Royal Netherland Air Force
R.G. Roper, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
Arthur Rorsch, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Molecular Genetics, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Rob Scagel, M.Sc., forest microclimate specialist, principal consultant, Pacific Phytometric Consultants, B.C.
Tom V. Segalstad, PhD, (Geology/Geochemistry), Head of the Geological Museum and Associate Professor of Resource and Environmental Geology, University of Oslo, Norway
Gary D. Sharp, PhD, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Salinas, CA
S. Fred Singer, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia and former director Weather Satellite Service
L. Graham Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography, University of Western Ontario
Roy W. Spencer, PhD, climatologist, Principal Research Scientist, Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama, Huntsville
Peter Stilbs, TeknD, Professor of Physical Chemistry, Research Leader, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm, Sweden
Hendrik Tennekes, PhD, former director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
Dick Thoenes, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Brian G Valentine, PhD, PE (Chem.), Technology Manager – Industrial Energy Efficiency, Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineering Science, University of Maryland at College Park; Dept of Energy, Washington, DC
Gerrit J. van der Lingen, PhD, geologist and paleoclimatologist, climate change consultant, Geoscience Research and Investigations, New Zealand
Len Walker, PhD, Power Engineering, Australia
Edward J. Wegman, PhD, Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University, Virginia
Stephan Wilksch, PhD, Professor for Innovation and Technology Management, Production Management and Logistics, University of Technolgy and Economics Berlin, Germany
Boris Winterhalter, PhD, senior marine researcher (retired), Geological Survey of Finland, former professor in marine geology, University of Helsinki, Finland
David E. Wojick, PhD, P.Eng., energy consultant, Virginia
Raphael Wust, PhD, Lecturer, Marine Geology/Sedimentology, James Cook University, Australia
A. Zichichi, PhD, President of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva, Switzerland; Emeritus Professor of Advanced Physics, University of Bologna, Italy
One hundred scientists from around the globe aren’t drinking the Goracle’s Kool-Aid, and have petitioned the UN to stop pushing the global warming hoax, and the hysteria associated with it.
It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages. Geological, archaeological, oral and written histories all attest to the dramatic challenges posed to past societies from unanticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, winds and other climatic variables. We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued increasingly alarming conclusions about the climatic influences of human-produced carbon dioxide (CO2), a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis. While we understand the evidence that has led them to view CO2 emissions as harmful, the IPCC’s conclusions are quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity. In particular, it is not established that it is possible to significantly alter global climate through cuts in human greenhouse gas emissions. On top of which, because attempts to cut emissions will slow development, the current UN approach of CO2 reduction is likely to increase human suffering from future climate change rather than to decrease it.
The IPCC Summaries for Policy Makers are the most widely read IPCC reports amongst politicians and non-scientists and are the basis for most climate change policy formulation. Yet these Summaries are prepared by a relatively small core writing team with the final drafts approved line-by-line by government representatives. The great majority of IPCC contributors and reviewers, and the tens of thousands of other scientists who are qualified to comment on these matters, are not involved in the preparation of these documents. The summaries therefore cannot properly be represented as a consensus view among experts.
The current UN focus on “fighting climate change,” as illustrated in the Nov. 27 UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report, is distracting governments from adapting to the threat of inevitable natural climate changes, whatever forms they may take. National and international planning for such changes is needed, with a focus on helping our most vulnerable citizens adapt to conditions that lie ahead. Attempts to prevent global climate change from occurring are ultimately futile, and constitute a tragic misallocation of resources that would be better spent on humanity’s real and pressing problems.
The list of signatories is impressive. But what would they know compared to the Goracle, a politician who was a C student in science? Besides, abandoning the global warming hoax means abandoning the perfect excuse to inflict socialism and economic ruin on Western Civilization — and of course, blame the United States for yet another catastrophe. Why would the Goracle and the bureaucrats at the UN possibly give that up, no matter how much the science disagrees with their agenda?
Hattip and taken from the geniuses at , undoubtably wasted on the fools of goldsteins ass.
Wizbang
Sorry to get back on topic, but: Steinbrueck will, however, continue . . . writing a column for Crosscut.com . . . .
Perhaps he should post his column instead in random elevators and public restrooms. That way someone will actually see it.
1. Does this guy play a lot of solitaire nowadays?
Watch it dgodjvmc: Nevercorrectnotbright will diss these people.
#7, RR “Okay. Ready? Here goes: Next time, live within your means.”
I have to agree. I went in to PI Soundoff, but it seems like the guy was getting filleted and almost burned at the stake. I didn’t want to jump onto the bonfire, so I didn’t say what I thought, which was ….err…umm….STOP MAKING BABIES for awhile IF you wish to improve your finances!
“In the three months since he’s returned home, the Bartons have been treading water while debt mounts and their credit rating plummets.
Their mortgage payments went from $850 to $1,350 a month in the summer. ”
“Sarah is three months pregnant with a third child.”
So, they know they’re in a world of hurting finances, and THEN went on to add another mouth to feed? Adding a while longer before Mom could leave an infant and possibly get a job herself? In reading at Soundoff, it really sounds like the family’s problems stem, not so much from the subprime mortgage crisis, but MORE from the 2 increasing hits on the 2nd mortgage – PLUS all the credit cards. Unfortunate, but they would probably fare better by not being homeowners.
Sure praying that the new baby doesn’t have cystic fibrosis. My brother and his wife have two kids with CF (neither family knew we were carriers) who have THANKFULLY survived to their early 20’s now. It’s a genetic thing, if one kid has CF much greater chance that a sibling will be born with it. The medical insurance is horrendous, drug costs soaring. Sgt. Barton is going to be hard pressed to FIND a job, should he ever want to leave the military, that would cover the kids insurance. What a sad, sorry situation!
You know if I posted the same crap in 5 or 6 threads, Perfesser Darryl would be screaming bloody murder.
I wonder if Geov will delete the Pelletizer (TM) non-topic dead zones from the ‘Wipes blog?
@15 “Unfortunate, but they would probably fare better by not being homeowners.”
Actually, that doesn’t seem to be the problem, as the mortgage payment is only $1,350 of their $4,000 monthly debt payments. The guy needs to lighten up on the credit cards and payday loans. The first thing he and his Mrs. should do is sit down at a table with paper, pencils, calculators, and their bills — and figure out where all the money they’re borrowing is going. I’ll bet a lot of it is just frittered away.
Roger Rabbit’s 10-Step Pathway To Financial Health
1. Buy less house than you can afford.
2. Use the cash flow this frees up to make “additional principal” payments.
3. Refinance your 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage as soon as you can afford the higher payments, because this will (a) lower your interest rate, and (b) pay off the principal faster, which results in additional savings of interest.
4. Buy what you have to and save the rest. Most people have it ass-backwards; they spend as much as they can and save nothing.
5. Here is how you can make $80 an hour pushing a broom or flipping burgers: Take the $8 an hour your boss paid you and put it into a growth stock that will be worth 10 times what you paid for it. This usually takes anywhere from 5 to 15 years, if you picked the stock properly.
6. Why drive if you can walk? You’ll be healthier and spend less on gas.
7. For some strange reason, people insist on buying stuff that comes with 500% retail markups. The people who do that have got it ass-backwards; instead of buying these items, sell them. One way to do this is by buying stocks in oilfield services and copper mining companies.
8. Read the unit price labels in the grocery store before throwing stuff into your cart.
9. Don’t throw anything into your cart that isn’t written on your Shopping List.
10. Don’t write your Shopping List when you’re hungry.
Hmmm … that’s 10 … I ran out of space before I finished, so I’ll just tack these on here:
Have only 1 no-fee credit card (the interest rate doesn’t matter).
Pay off your credit card in full every month (this way, you never pay any interest, and get all the credit card company’s services free).
Don’t buy anything with the credit card that you can’t pay cash for right now.
Use the credit card for buying groceries, gas, and other stuff you’d buy anyway, and think of the credit card’s main purposes as (a) avoiding carrying cash, and (b) getting free merchandise with your points.
Another good thing about credit cards is they don’t let you buy lottery tickets with them. You have to pay cash for lottery tickets. If you don’t carry cash, you won’t throw your money away on lottery tickets.
Every once in a while, just to keep yourself amused and to prevent your financial life from getting too boring (i.e., your net worth keeps increasing every month as reliably as it rains in Seattle in winter), carry $1 in your wallet and use it to buy a lottery ticket. But only when the pot is over $134 million, like it is right now.
Think of the $1 you spent on the Megamillions lottery ticket as taxes you’d have to pay to the state anyway if you didn’t pay them by buying the lottery ticket. Viewing it from this perspective, lottery tickets are free, as long as you don’t buy too many of them, or waste your lottery ticket budget on small pots. After all, why go to the trouble of beating 134 million:1 odds to win a measly fucking $10 million? Make the math work in your favor: You want at least even odds.
Don’t think that just because you have money, you have to spend it. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, and can’t keep yourself from spending it, then call a stockbroker and buy some growth stock.
Oh yeah, one more thing: GET RID OF DEBT!!! You should have two primary financial goals in life, (a) reduce your budget for loan payments to zero, and (b) pile up money in savings and investments as fast as you can.
If you do all these things, you too can stop working for no pay, and get paid for doing no work. That’s called the Roger Rabbit Way, and it’s the only way to go!
@18 RR “The guy needs to lighten up on the credit cards and payday loans. ”
Ahhh! I figured the interest rates must be a killer on the credit cards, probably 24-30% and that adds up fast. Hadn’t considered payday loans which, from everything I’ve read, is a SERIOUS unfreaking real interest scam. Yep, I can appreciate better. One poster before me over at Soundoff suggested Consumer Credit Counseling and I reiterated that was the first step, that I’ve used them before in my far past. CCC would pull out the pencils and calculators and figure it for them even.
At least, when the guy loses his house he MAY have military base housing to fall back on. Most people don’t/won’t have that sort of net to catch them in free fall. More likely find themselves living among the homeless.