THE STEEL DEAL

I just heard something that disturbs me. 'Wealth disparity'.  Roll that around in your mouth and see if you don't puke.

Guitar Gods & Gotham

  
   I feel like telling a story, do ya mind? Long time ago, I lived in New York City. And, I was in the Center of the Universe, according to Tom Wolfe. I headed up the order desk for one of the largest commodities trading operations at the time - Shearson Hayden Stone. It was 1974. Gold had just been legalized in this country and my little brother was on the floor of COMEX - largest precious metals market in the World. High times. I had two phones with a hundred buttons and two teletype machines - one even had a full time operator - Gawd she was pretty. A dozen people seated at a giant desk with a conveyor belt on top to move the orders through. Chaos with a touch of insanity. I was there when gold went from $35 to $835.

   The Rolling Stones were booked at Madison Square Garden. I think that was the very first time concert tickets were sold by lottery. A week before the concert, my brother called me up and demanded I get some tickets. Well hell, I like the Stones and all, but I wasn't all that enthused. I speed dialed around my phone - brokers in NYC and Chicago. Funny thing about brokers - they broke anything - gold, wheat, pork bellies and yes, even concert tickets. I found six tickets for $600 bucks a pop. Made the trade and invited a mutual friend of my brother's and mine and his girlfriend.

   Which is where we went before the concert. Now, some folks collect things. Some folks have a wine cellar. Mike Seagal had a sample of every pot he'd ever smoked in tin film canisters, labeled neatly, in a briefcase. Go over to Mike's and he'd drag that thing out, pull some canisters out, and reflect on the particular high of each. He'd select a few - paying careful attention to the 'high' he was after. Kind of a wine steward of dope. It was more an experience than just getting a buzz on. He did good. We got stoned.

   When we got to Madison Square it was a madhouse. Scalpers all over the place. Crappy T-shirts everywhere. The six of us piled out of a Checker cab and plowed through the crowd. I looked up and lo and behold, next door, at the Felt Forum, ZZ Tops was playing. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Here I got big buck tickets to the Rolling Stones and ZZ Tops is next door. Ah, that didn't take long. I convinced Mike and his squeeze that was a better show. I knew this because my other brother had turned me on to the Tops a few years before.

  My little brother was not so convinced. We 'conferenced'. Out there on the concrete, amidst the chaos, we held a meeting. The result of which was Mike and his girl and me and mine gave our tickets to somebody frantically trying to buy same and went in to see Tres Hombres. My little brother and his wife did the Stones. I gotta tell ya, I saw Jimi Hendrix in a high school gymnasium. I saw the Animals at a roller skate rink. I saw Bob Dylan after hours with a dozen studio musicians. ZZ Tops was the flat out best show I ever saw. This was before they had beards.  They had a plastic cow and bales of hay on stage. The piping on their cowboy shirts was lit like neon. They rocked.

   After the show, we all re-connected and compared notes. My brother and his wife were seated so far from the stage that they were barely able to see the pyrotechnics - this being before the advent of big screens. I sat in the front row - I could smell the hay. Hands down and far away the absolutely best show I ever saw. Jimi Hendrix was asked once by some reporter from the Village Voice - 'who do you see as an up and coming guitarist'? He replied 'better keep an eye on Billy Gibbons' he being the lead axe for the Tops.

Man, was he right on.
Why don't you 'full screen that video?

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Henrietta Hughes - the face of this Brave New World

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  When President Obama went to Fort Myers, Fla., to emphasize the nation's need for his economic stimulus plan, he promised to help a pleading homeless woman get back on her feet in a highly publicized exchange - but recent reports now reveal the woman may, in fact, be an owner of multiple properties. "I have an urgent need," the elderly black woman identifying herself as Henrietta Hughes told Obama at a Feb. 10 town hall rally. She nearly broke into tears, telling the president her family is desperate and homeless.

  "The housing authority has two years waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to," she said. "We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help." The audience applauded as Obama kissed her on the cheek. "We're going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you. We're going to do everything we can." Obama promised the well-dressed woman. "I'll have my staff talk to you after the town hall."

  National media called her "the face of the economic crisis," while critics suggested the heartfelt moment may have been staged. After the incident, Chene Thompson, wife of Florida state Rep. Nicholas Thompson, R-Fort Myers, said she would allow Hughes to stay in her home without charging rent. "Basically, I offered Ms. Hughes and her son the opportunity to stay in my home rent-free for as long as they need to," Thompson told WBBH-TV in Fort Myers. "I'm not a millionaire, I'm not rich, but this is what I can do for someone if they need it." Hughes and her son, Corey, later declared to MSNBC that they had found hope with the help of God and Obama.

  A blogger on Sweetness & Light researched property records for Hughes and found that the woman owned as many as three homes in recent years. She sold one in 2005 – two years after she allegedly began living in her car with her son - for a significant profit. Hughes granted full ownership of a second home to her son, and the blogger suggests that Hughes made the transfer to meet income requirements for continuing to collect Social Security Disability Insurance and Medicare benefits. No sales records could be located for the third home – and some say it could be an indication that Hughes still owns it. Link

    Everybody knew that was staged - it was painful in its choreography - sickening really. But it made for a nice slice of humanity in the Messiah's first days and was not scrutinized much by the mainstream media.. Malkin nailed it from jump street. I'll tell you what, despite the Left's infatuation with our new Savior, this, and what I am sure will be more of this, will sour even the most rabid Obama supporter's soul. There's something that has been troubling me thoughout this - this ascendency - this whole beatification of Barack Obama - when people realize just what it is we've been sold - how ugly will be the reaction. I think it will be real ugly. I'm sad about that. First black POTUS, such a nice young man and so well-spoken. And nothing but a piece of shit marketing ploy. No better than crap on corn flakes. It will set any hopes of racial harmony in this  country back decades. Maybe that was their intent. Ever stopped to think about that? If he fails there will be such an 'unrest' in this land - far greater than has ever been - that it will foment too much reaction - violent reaction - enough to justify almost any measures to quell it. Think about that for a minute. Barack Obama may be an empty suit with nice delivery, but if he fails, and fails badly, what then? Twenty percent of our population is going to be very pissed off. They will ascribe his undoing to racism. Nevermind that he's nothing more than a construct, nevermind that he hasn't the experience, nevermind he is just a guy who can read teleprompters and look good - when it comes down to substance - it ain't there. He was propped up by so many willing participants, he can't possibly be the small shallow man who would resort to such deception. Henrietta Hughes must be real. She HAS to be real. Poor, suffering black woman living out of her truck with her adult son - diving in dumpsters, homeless and without hope. Yeah. Scam Queen is more like it and that is exactly what we all knew. And there are millions more like her - scamming us all and living large. Let me bring this down to soulville. Me, and about 200 million other people who live in this country, are not about to be scammed into providing for the likes of Henrietta Hughes. Or the one thousand illegal aliens who come across the border every single day. We are not going to do it. Now you can try and make us do it, but you will find yourself looking down the wrong end of a barrel.

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Soul Food

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   I was going to strip some of his speech as reported by the wires and post it, but I just couldn't. I was going to try and find things in his speech that I could rip apart, but I was over whelmed. I really wanted to dissect his address. But I realized that would be like dumpster diving behind a slaughterhouse. And to tell you the truth - I don't have the stomach for it. I can butcher a hog, dip it, skin it, carve it up and smoke that fat bastard all the way to Nirvana, but I ain't got the stomach to put my knife to what he said. The stink would gag me. Nothin' like the smell of rotting offal to put me off my feed. I'll tell you what, all this spending - this insane notion that throwing money at something - is going to change anything is like slathering a dead pig with BBQ sauce and thinking that will be tasty. It won't. It will taste like raw roadkill. I know, I know, times are hard, but ain't nothin' in this whole wide world is gonna make me think some hog meat - bloated and festering - knocked 20 yards off the highway by a truck full of good intentions - is gonna smoke to palatibility. It will still taste like shit. I have a saying. Life is like a shit sandwich. Put as much bread on that sucker as you can. I think that's the recipe Barack Obama is cooking up. Click the image for the details.

I think I'll smoke some turkey tomorrow.

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Joe Isuzu v 2.0

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  Sometimes a high price tag, a label, or an ingredient can lead us to believe that we're purchasing a high-quality item. But what happens if the attribute that attracted us to the product is false or meaningless? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines consumer responses to "biasing cues," features that consumers assume are related to the quality of the item.

  "Often consumers' beliefs about the relationship between an attribute and product quality are correct," write authors Wouter Vanhouche and Stijn van Osselaer. "For example, higher-priced products are often better quality products. However, in many other cases, those beliefs are incorrect. For example, many low-priced products are actually quite good and many high-priced products are actually quite bad. Some attributes are even just irrelevant to product quality or are completely meaningless. For example, putting silk in shampoo does not do anything for hair but consumers may nevertheless expect it to."

  Past research has demonstrated that biasing cues can successfully deceive consumers into buying items. But the authors wanted to find out if the same consumers would be deceived a second time. Using laboratory experiments involving orange juice, polo shirts, and paper towels, the authors found that biased quality expectations did not carry over to a second purchase. In fact, participants learned from those initial judgment mistakes.

  "We found that consumers' quality judgments were actually made more accurate by the presence of such attributes," write the authors. "The presence of a high price on a low-quality orange juice or a Florida (vs. New Jersey) bottling location on a low-quality juice did not make the consumers more positive about the product one week after trying the product, but helped them to remember that the high-priced or the Florida-bottled juice was bad," the authors explain.

  The message to marketers is that consumers are not so easily duped. "Marketers should think twice about trying to mislead consumers by putting high prices on low-quality products or by touting attributes that seem to signal quality but in reality are meaningless," write the authors. "Marketers using such attributes may succeed at getting consumers to try their products, but the misleading actions are likely to backfire at the time of repeat purchase." Uh huh

Sounds like a validation of an old saying - 'fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me'.

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Don't Worry - Be Stoned

  Sacramento - California would become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced Monday by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco. The proposal would regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis - all of which is barred by federal law.

  Ammiano, a Democrat in his third month as a state lawmaker, said taxes and other fees associated with regulation could put more than a billion dollars a year into state coffers at a time when revenues continue to decline. He said he thinks the federal government could soften its stance on marijuana under the Obama administration.

  "We could in fact have the political will to do something, and certainly in the meantime this is a public policy call and I think it's worth the discussion," Ammiano said. "I think the outcome would be very healthy for California and California's economy."

  A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on the proposal. A White House spokesman referred to a statement on a question-and-answer section of an Obama transition team blog that says the president "is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."

  A lobbyist for key police associations in the state called it "a bad idea whose time has not come." "The last thing our society needs is yet more legal intoxicants," said John Lovell, who represents the California Peace Officers' Association, California Police Chiefs Association and California Narcotic Officers' Association. "We've got enough social problems now when people aren't in charge of all five of their senses." Bong

   Hmmm. Let's review. California now has the 'highest' tax rates, gas prices and foreclosures in the country. Check. People are leaving in droves to escape. Check. It has the most unfavorable climate for doing business in the nation according to several independent non-partisan and very well respected sources. Check. It is the eighth or fifth largest economy in the world, depending on the metrics and just  narrowly avoided bankruptcy. Check. A fifth of all the people who live in California are illegal aliens and the State legislature just passed a budget that will increase every single taxpayer's annual nut by almost $2000.00 dollars. Check, Marijuana is already the largest 'cash crop' in California. Check. Smoking dope makes you feel better. Check

Makes sense to me.

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LEGO my capitalism!

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  Copenhagen - Danish toy maker Lego on Monday said profits rose 32% on strong sales in 2008 despite a slowdown in the wider toy industry. Net profit for 2008 was 1.35 billion kroner ($232 million), up from 1.03 billion in 2007.

  Sales of Lego's plastic building blocks rose 19% to 9.53 billion kroner ($1.37 billion) from 8.03 billion kroner the previous year. The family-owned group does not release quarterly figures.

  Lego said it saw strong sales in its City, Star Wars and Indiana Jones product lines, even though the global toy market declined because of the economic downturn.

  The Billund, Denmark-based company said it expects moderate sales growth in 2009 despite the worldwide recession.

  "Our optimism is supported by the results seen in the first months of the year," Chief Executive Joergen Vig said. Though the company is not publicly listed, it has published earnings reports since 1997.Linke

   Well, isn't that interesting? A privately run, family-owned business turning a tidy profit - even in the face of Swedish socialism. This is not an aberration, you know. WalMart, UPS and Viacom are all privately held, family-owned businesses and are all doing relatively well in this current economic 'crisis'. Meanwhile, corporations with bloated boards and devilishly intricate structures are tanking. What''s the difference, you ask? It goes  back to a very old saying - 'too many cooks spoil the soup'. Now, that being the case ...

How well do you suppose those companies the government is taking over will fare?

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When Worlds Collide!

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 It is becoming increasingly clear that the Obama administration cares not one whit for what the free markets are trying to tell us. That is understandable - he is a socialist after all. But the American people are not. An overwhelming majority of this nation's citizens are capitalists and right of center politically - some surveys have that figure at 85%. There is a groundswell of discontent building over ALL the bailouts, stimulus and spending that is coming from Washington. Over two thirds surveyed are vehemently against the latest mortgage relief package proposed by Obama just the other day. The stock markets are in total retreat and have been since it became apparent that Barack Obama would be our President and the chosen one has done nothing but talk the economy down to scare up enough support to enact his wealth redistribution programs. His co-conspirators in Congress have been his cheer leaders in this endeavor. Nations that once gladly purchased our debt - because it was the safest investment in the world - are now balking at buying any more. At some point these two disparate world views must collide.

When that event occurs, things could get very ugly.

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Truth or Crap?

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   I just don't know. Alan Keyes is one of the smartest people I have ever seen in a public venue. He is also a firebrand who craves attention. There is something wrong with a man who would be our leader who refuses to release his school transcripts, his grades, his essays from Harvard Law School, his passports from his childhood and his birth certificate. Not only that, his organization has stumbled in their refutations at every step along the way. The sense of urgency surrounding the passage of the stimulus bill and now the mortgage relief measure, speak of someone who has something to hide and desperately wants to get as much done before anyone finds him out. I do not think were it revealed he was not qualified to be POTUS by virtue of his citizenship, that he would be removed from office - Congress would alter the Constitution first. But still, he does not act like a man who has nothing to hide, nor does he appear to have the best interests - the real interests - of this Nation at heart.

He seems hell bent on destroying it - or altering it beyond recognition.

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The Mortgage Meltdown - Ground Zero

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  The financial problems afflicting our nation were triggered by the mortgage crisis - too many homes for too many people unable to afford them. Simplistic, perhaps, but true. At the heart of the problem were mortgages designed and promoted to lure people into signing on the dotted line - while unwittingly signing away their future. The epicenter of this earthquake was in California. But the true epicenter can be located with greater precision at the headquarters of World Savings, the nation's second-largest savings and loan, founded and led by Herb and Marion Sandler.

  The type of mortgage sold by the bucketful were known as Option ARMs. They carried low "teaser" interest rates that had the potential to adjust up, which they disastrously did. At the same time, housing values collapsed. Borrowers found themselves underwater. They were saddled with unaffordable mortgages and could not be bailed out by higher home values. One additional feature of these mortgages pioneered by the Sandlers was called "Pick-A-Pay." This allowed borrowers to choose to pay unusually low monthly payments with their obligations being pushed back and made part of the principal of the loan. This was financially perilous, especially when the housing crash came.

  Major media have begun to scrutinize the Sandlers' role. Time magazine has listed them among the 25 people most responsible for our crisis. Last Sunday, CBS' "60 Minutes" featured a segment on World Savings. The "Pick-A-Pay" methodology was the focus. A whistleblower, Paul Bishop, was the star. He had warned the top management at World Savings that loans were being aggressively promoted and made to people with little or no regard for their ability to afford them. The term "Enron" was waved about like a red flag but to no avail.

  Late last year, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco announced dual inquiries into whether World Savings engaged in predatory lending practices or misled investors about its financial well-being. The Sandlers were offered a chance to appear on the show but declined. Instead, they sent a letter disavowing responsibility for the problems and stood by their assertion that proper controls were in place and practiced and that the fault lies in the collapse of the housing sector. Link

   Whenever the terms 'socialism' or 'communism' get mentioned, we in the West, conjure up images of gulags, block after block of concrete tenements and soldiers with machine guns on every corner. That was the old world. Today, things are much different - we have Socialism Lite. It's a Brave New World.

   It's no longer necessary to cow the population into capitulation with armed men and tanks - all that's needed now is control over those key components of our society upon which we depend on to survive. Food, clothing, shelter and even water. Those commodities are easily controlled today - they can all be coordinated and run from a single location and a few super computers.

   Socialism was never about enabling the little people - it was always about insuring the 'chosen elites' maintain their positions of power and that task is infinitely more simple today than ever before. Case in point - the two you see above.  They knew exactly what they were doing and the inevitable results of their actions. That being, the further economic subjugation of those less worthy.

   They were able to accomplish this with the full support of the Left and Democrats. Read the article. The duplicity and willingness of Democrats - Democrats who are now in complete control of this nation - is breathtaking in its scope and outrageous in its success. The very same people who were 'elected' last year are co-conspirators - nothing less - and the aim - the ultimate goal of all involved is the restructuring of our political and economic system.

   Their designs are not, nor have they ever been, about improving the lots of the likes of us.  They are not concerned with the environment. They do not care about healthcare. They don't give a second thought 'for the children'.  Those are all merely red herrings and strawmen tossed our way to deflect the real purpose of their endeavors - complete and total control over all aspects of our lives and the elimination of any possibility of their losing  that control and its commensurate wealth and power - ever.

After all,  they're the chosen, They are better and know more.  It's their right to lead us. They insist.

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