It didn't have to end this way

Remember the Titanic? It didn't have to sink the way it did. They had plenty of warning about the waiting icebergs but they decided to go full steam ahead. How about 911? The FBI got several bits of valuable data way ahead of the disaster and decided to do nothing. The ego-saturated administrators knew better. How about the Challenger Shuttle? The big explosion? The little engineers were overruled by the executives. There's a danger in thinking that you know everything. All I know is that this opera singer is rather pretty. Who is she?

CHRYSLER

From a story from somewhere: “NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Thursday that Iacocca's pension would be among the obligations Chrysler will no longer have to pay if it gets bankruptcy court approval to sell itself to a "New Chrysler" to be owned by its union, the U.S. and Canadian governments and Fiat. Chrysler has also written to former executives saying that as a result of its April 30 bankruptcy filing it will stop a program that furnished company cars to former executives and directors.” Don’t be too quick to feel sorry for these executives – they’re fat cats, all of them.

Wal-Mart

I recently got this in an email. I don’t know what it means. 1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day than Target sells all year. 4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Sears, Costco, and K-Mart combined. 5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. 6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined. 8. During the last 15 years, 31 supermarket chains have gone bankrupt. 9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world. 10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago. 11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.) 12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. Maybe Wal-Mart should bail out Wall Street?

Democracy

This is why I think Democracy isn't necessarily the greatest thing since the year 1200: Guatemala is a democracy, Iran is a democracy, Iraq is a democracy, Mexico is a democracy, the United States is a democracy, Venezuela is a democracy, Panama is a democracy, Italy is a democracy, India is a democracy, Turkey is a democracy, Russia is a democracy, and any number of African nations are democracies. The corruption and lack of justice and dignity are everywhere to be found in these democracies. Democracy guarantees nothing. It is just a smoke screen for wily and astute men who like to beguile and control people. Please. Is there an alternative?

Juvenile Delinquency

So, North Korea conducted another nuclear test. It seems to have caught a lot of people by surprise. Everyone is saying that North Korea is such a bad nation - it behaves so, so badly. No psychologist has been able to figure out why it behaves this way. How many psychologists are there in the world - 300,000, 700,000, a million, two million? I do not know. That many people cannot figure out what to do with this bad boy. North Korea is lucky. It's like when a parent is trying to figure out what went wrong with their delinquent child. It's impossible to figure out. We sent the New York Philharmonic over there and that didn't help. If they attack someone, let them have it. If not, leave them alone. Anyway, they are so far away, we should not be worried. Let those that are closest to North Korea worry - it's their problem. We have enough on our plate already, no? I didn't notice any environmental extremists say anything about how much hotter the Earth is now that the North Koreans exploded this bomb, which I'm sure produces more than a little bit of heat. It just makes me wonder. How do they pick who to pick on???

Beauty and the Beast

Here is the late Lucy Gordon. A beautiful and very talented woman on the verge of stardom. She had almost everything going for her. She killed herself yesterday and I'm guessing it was due to depression. Many things will be debated about the motive. Do not let anyone tell you that depression is a mental illness. It is a physical illness like every other illness. The human body is nothing more than flesh and blood - chemicals thrown together in a most wonderful and mysterious way. You and I are nothing more than cocktails. Alter the cocktail - like altering a mixed drink recipe - and you can alter the person. This woman could certainly have been helped. Even if some other emotion caused her to take her life, emotions are nothing more than chemical reactions. Sadness or joy or optimism or ambition or laziness or anger or hate. Nothing but chemistry.

Current Foreclosures

Did you notice that oxymoron? Actually, it's a rather cute name for a website. This Current Foreclosure site has thousands of foreclosures listed. Might you not need an agent after you look at the list? Yup. It's always good to have an agent, whether you're a seasoned investor or a newbie. I'm not an agent but I'm sure you can find one nearby.

Tallerant

From some news story somewhere: “MELBOURNE (AFP) – Tall people earn higher wages than their vertically-challenged counterparts while being obese does not mean a slimmed-down pay packet, according to a new study in Australia. The researchers found a strong link between wages and height, particularly for men, with each additional four inches of height adding three percent to hourly wages.” The same thing is true of beautiful people. Tell me something I don’t already know – this is SO OBVIOUS. Next thing they will tell us is that according to some university study, higher prices cause inflation. Please.

Realty Track

There is this company that has a virtual lock on foreclosure sales. They definitely are on the right track. I think it's RealtyTrac. The thing to remember is that not all foreclosures are listed on the multiple listing service's book. RealtyTrac can help you with any purchases as long as they are listed. You are on your own as far as the rest are concerned. Talk to all the banks regarding their Real Estate Owned (REO) portfolios. You can get incredible deals right now, just don't bite off more than you can chew. Good luck.

Air Cars

I'm sure you've heard already - there's this company which is manufacturing cars that run on compressed air. I think it's in India but I'm just guessing. It might be in Alaska for all I know. That's not important to me. What's important is the car itself - if it's real. All these years, car companies all over the world have been going along with the oil companies to produce cars that take as much money out of your pocket as possible. Now comes this little upstart company which will cut your car fuel bills by 80% - imagine that!!!! Someone is bound to get in a lot of trouble over this.

Foreclosures

A foreclosure is a result of the acceleration of a debt that cannot be paid as agreed. If a bank asks for all its money all at once, foreclosure is almost inevitable. It is not a bankruptcy though. A bankruptcy comes as a result of every lender coming fast upon you demanding payment in full. I often wonder why people who are about to lose title to their property do not sell prior to foreclosure. Of course, if your mortgage is upside down (when you owe more than the property is worth), it would make little difference, no.? I often wonder what would happen if banks simply restructured every bad loan - dropped the interest rate and extended the term. Is 6% unmanageable? Drop the deal to 1%. Is thirty years not enough time? Extend the deal to fifty or sixty years. A hundred years from now, people will be looking back at how homes used to be financed and they will scratch their head in bewilderment. Foreclosures only happen when everybody wants their money NOW. I say: What's the hurry?

Another Book About Sex

From a Yahoo! News story: “WARSAW, Poland – The Rev. Ksawery Knotz has a message for all married Catholic couples out there: there's nothing wrong with a steamy sex life. In fact, it's a good thing. In his new book "Sex as you don't know it: For married couples who love God," the Polish friar provides a theological and practical guide for Catholics that has little in common with the strait-laced attitudes often associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Clergymen, including Knotz's countryman Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI, have written about the ethics of love, marriage and sexuality before, but few if any priests have taken Knotz's explicit approach to sex — including everything from the theological to the practical, from oral sex to contraception and the number of children a Catholic couple should have. The book received the necessary approval from Poland's church authorities that it is theologically in line with Catholic teachings. There also has been no sign of a backlash in the heavily Catholic and conservative homeland of the late Pope John Paul II. Still, Knotz acknowledges that a priest writing a book about sex "is in and of itself a bit of a sensation."
Well, I’m guessing that God invented sex anyway, so I am not one bit surprised by this.

Dangerous neighborhood

From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – Space shuttle Atlantis is now in a rough orbital neighborhood — a place littered with thousands of pieces of space junk zipping around the Earth at nearly 20,000 mph. There are more pieces of shattered satellites and used-up rockets in this region than astronauts have ever encountered. As soon as the job is complete, the shuttle will scamper to safety - all those tiny projectiles raise the constant threat of a potentially fatal collision. NASA now puts the risk for a catastrophic collision with junk during the mission at 1 in 229 — greater than typical flights to the space station but lower than the agency's initial estimates. The Air Force is tracking more than 19,000 objects in all sorts of orbits — most of it junk. The dirtiest spots are at 525 miles up where a Chinese satellite was destroyed and 490 miles, where an Russian-American satellite collision occurred. And the higher the space junk orbits, the longer it stays aloft because there's even less drag from the ultra-thin atmosphere pulling stuff down. For example, a 4-inch object 490 miles up will stay in orbit for more than a century, Johnson said. Objects between one-tenth of an inch and 4 inches are dangerous enough to cause major and even fatal damage, but cannot be specifically tracked.” So, why are all the green revolution people not saying anything about this? And, we want to travel to Mars? What for? To pollute it? Please.

Bias in Science???

From a Yahoo! News story: “A new review of studies finds 29 percent of cancer research published in high-profile journals had disclosed a conflict of interest. While it's a good thing that the conflicts were disclosed, the review also found conflicts affect the research outcomes. The results, announced today, will be published June 15 in the journal Cancer. The findings add to a mountain of evidence suggesting you should be skeptical of health and medical advice.” Really??? This comes as no surprise – there is so much self-serving stuff out there one cannot keep up with all the posturing and pretense and hypocrisy. Good luck.

Very funny

From a Yahoo! News story: “CARACAS, Venezuela – Prominent Venezuelan nongovernmental organizations warned Thursday that a bill being drafted by lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez could be used to financially strangle groups that criticize the government. Ruling-party lawmakers argue the proposed law is necessary to increase oversight of foreign funding destined for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), although they've promised to hear concerns from critics before taking up the bill for likely approval in the coming months. A draft of the bill says foreign donations for NGOs would no longer be sent directly to organizations but instead would be deposited in a government-controlled fund. Officials would dole out the money at their discretion.” This is really funny. As the saying goes, “He who has the gold makes the rules,” no? Once the government gets its hands on the money, it will be next to impossible to shake it loose. Who knows?

Scandalous

From a Yahoo! News story: “PRETORIA, South Africa – Jacob Zuma became president of Africa's economic powerhouse Saturday, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of all South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to reach the nation's highest office. Zuma, 67, is a former guerrilla fighter and intelligence chief of the African National Congress who has since survived corruption and sex scandals and an internal power struggle within his party. Tens of thousands had broken into spontaneous song when Zuma arrived, beaming, accompanied by his senior wife, Sizakele Khumalo. Zuma's unabashed polygamy has raised questions about which of his three current wives may act as first lady. On Saturday, all three were reported present but only Khumalo accompanied him to the stage.”

There is nothing new here. It just seems like high political office and scandal go together, whether in Russia, France, Pakistan, Japan, the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Afghanistan, China, Germany, Guatemala, Brazil, and even tiny, little Switzerland. The scandals either have to do with money or sex. Always. So, what else is new? Please.

Diplomacy is funny

From a Yahoo! News story: "PRAGUE – Despite deep Russian misgivings, the European Union and six former Soviet republics formally agreed on Thursday to pursue a new partnership meant to draw the eastern nations closer into the EU orbit. The agreement approved by presidents, premiers and their deputies from 33 nations is meant to extend the EU's political and economic ties in exchange for commitments to democracy from beneficiary nations. But already riled by NATO's eastward outreach, Moscow views the so-called "Eastern Partnership" plan with suspicion. Kremlin ally Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the International Affairs committee in Russia's upper parliament house, said Thursday the Prague meeting was a geopolitically motivated effort by the West to increase its influence over former Soviet republics, Russian news agencies reported.
"This Eastern Partnership is directed against no one, including Russia," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among 17 heads of governments attending, along with four heads of state. Javier Solana, the EU's top diplomat, chided unidentified Russian leaders by saying their comments "have not been very constructive vis a vis the meeting of today." "This is not against Russia," he told reporters.

This, of course, is a bunch of nonsense. The deal is aimed at Russia, plain and simple. Politicians and diplomats can NEVER be honest. That would spell disaster for everybody, no?

Plutonium

From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – NASA is running out of nuclear fuel needed for its deep space exploration. The end of the Cold War's nuclear weapons buildup means that the U.S. space agency does not have enough plutonium for future faraway space probes — except for a few missions already scheduled — according to a new study released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences. Deep space probes beyond Jupiter can't use solar power because they're too far from the sun. The National Academy report says it would cost the Energy Department at least $150 million to resume making it for the 11 pounds a year that NASA needs for its space probes. Solar power is preferable to plutonium because it is cheaper and has fewer safety concerns, but solar power just doesn't work in the darkest areas of space.” To begin with, I have not the slightest clue why we need to be exploring outer space when we need to explore solutions to serious problems we have here on this planet. Secondly, I really don’t need to be told that solar power does not work in the dark and that it’s cheaper than plutonium. Please. Either way, the woman at left does not seem to care.

SwineFluential

I saw this picture of a guy who looked sort of like a peacock and thought it was funny so now I am sharing it with all those who haven't caught the swine flu yet - 99.999999999999% of the world's population. They are the ones who might find this amusing. Of course, the drug companies absolutely adore the new flu - it means millions of extra dollars in their accounts by next Fall. Does anyone remember Bernie Madoff? Or Governor Spitzer? Or the Russian war against Georgia? This swine flu thing is a blessing for anyone caught up in a scandal. Too bad that by next month it will be a thing of the past. We must wait until next Fall for the next installment. Please.