Today's Headlines

[Walkinghairball]

Cool..........glowie lightie thingie.


*Is mesmorized*

[awip2062]

Does it give off heat, too? *tries to warm herself by it*

[Big Blue Owl]

Yes, it does heat. Here's a miniature one I whipped together. I call it the "t-Cozy."

[awip2062]

With that on my right and the wood stove on my left, why would I ever want to move? lol

[CygnusX1]

The War On Christmas

Siggy's "Retail Recon" SITREP

(Orginally posted on www.mymerrychristmas.com)

While news reports indicate many retailers are either giving "Merry
Christmas" another go or admitting a mistake in banning it in the first
place, My Merry Christmas has STILL received thousands of emails in the
past week demanding a list of those who will and who will not say "Merry
Christmas" in their advertising or while shopping in their stores:

So, by popular request, this is what our research has uncovered this year:


Stores Who Will Say "Merry Christmas" This Year:

Target
Kohl's
Macy's
TJX stores (TJ Maxx, Marshall's, HomeGoods, A.J. Wright, Bob's stores)
Walgreen's
Wal-Mart
J.C. Penney's
Dillard's
Joann Fabrics
Linens 'N Things
K-Mart
Chick-fil-A
Hobby Lobby
Michael's
Farmer Jack (grocery)
Stater Brothers (grocery)
Kroger's
Denny's
In-N-Out Burger
Christian Brothers Automotive
Bath & Body Works

Stores Avoiding Christmas:

Best Buy - steadfastly refuses to mention Christmas
Home Depot - still hiding behind the "holiday" trees
Lowe's - clerks will only say "Merry Christmas" when it is customer initiated
L.L. Bean - one Christmas catalog issued, all others holiday-centered
Plow & Hearth - you might find Christmas in the fine print
Crate & Barrel
Eddie Bauer - doesn't want to offend anyone
Toys 'R' Us
Banana Republic
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Dick's Sporting Goods
The Gap
Safeway

"You have this arrogant minority that wants to go to the point of stripping
away Christmas trees and colored lights. I mean, this sounds like
something out of the old Soviet Union; and people need to be very
aware." - Denver talk radio host Dan Caplis

[Big Blue Owl]

Perhaps the stores that don't want to use the Christmas label are Jewish-owned? They celebrate Christmas like Christians celebrate Hanukkah.

I'm a Christmas fan myself.

[CygnusX1]

Perhaps the stores that don't want to use the Christmas label are Jewish-owned? They celebrate Christmas like Christians celebrate Hanukkah.

I'm a Christmas fan myself.

Good point dude....good point.

Look at the movies that debut on Christmas day....Non-Christians gotta
do SOMETHIN', right?

[Sir Myghin]

Perhaps the stores that don't want to use the Christmas label are Jewish-owned? They celebrate Christmas like Christians celebrate Hanukkah.

I'm a Christmas fan myself.

Good point dude....good point.

Look at the movies that debut on Christmas day....Non-Christians gotta
do SOMETHIN', right?

Thats fine , happy Hanukkah works too really, no offense there, however "happy winter holiday" smacks of I don't want your beliefs but refuse to give up celebrated days around your beliefs regardless as I want my own selfish holiday to fill the gap, oh, and presents

[zepboy]

As our country is caught in a n economic downturn, it is believed by many that much of our problems were caused by our congress' lack of propriety in regards to their oversight of big business.

Being in Congress is a tough tour of duty, however, and should be justly rewarded.

Don't believe me? Ask Congress!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12 ... og-groups/

[awip2062]

Not just Congress. How about $1.6 Billion for the nearly 600 top Execs of the failed banks?

That works out to $2,666,666.67 for each exec if you round up to the number 600.

Now tell me, if your company fails do they give you $2.7 million dollars or your walking papers?

I must admit I agree with Barney Frank on this:

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive largesse, said the bonuses tallied by the AP review amount to a bribe "to get them to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place.

"Most of us sign on to do jobs and we do them best we can," said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. "We're told that some of the most highly paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated!"

A few other quotes from the article:

_Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company's top five executives received a total of $242 million.

This year, Goldman will forgo cash and stock bonuses for its seven top-paid executives. They will work for their base salaries of $600,000, the company said. Facing increasing concern by its own shareholders on executive payments, the company described its pay plan last spring as essential to retain and motivate executives "whose efforts and judgments are vital to our continued success, by setting their compensation at appropriate and competitive levels." Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday declined to comment beyond that written report.

The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28.

_Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.

The full article is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/executive_bailouts

This isn't about the economy. It's about status quo.

[CygnusX1]

I must admit I agree with Barney Frank on this:

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive largesse, said the bonuses tallied by the AP review amount to a bribe "to get them to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place.

"Most of us sign on to do jobs and we do them best we can," said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. "We're told that some of the most highly paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated!"

Nice.

This is coming from the man in charge of the House Finance Committee,
that said Fannie and Freddy were financially sound - six months before
they went tits-up and begged for a gov't bailout.

....You think Barney's trying to save face?

[Big Blue Owl]

From Fox News (o' course)

Rep. Barney Frank had a gay lover who was with Fannie Mae. Did this affair influence Frank on Fannie Mae causing the financial disaster which led to the need for the $700 BILLION bailout?
Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

Friday, October 03, 2008

By Bill Sammon


WASHINGTON ? Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank?s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank?s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency?s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie?s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It?s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what?s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he?s gay. It?s the quintessential double standard."

A top GOP House aide agreed.

"C?mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank?s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley?s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain?s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation?s housing and banking laws."

Frank?s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae?s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month?s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton?s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today?s economic crisis.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently.

[CygnusX1]

3 Doors Down Play For The Troops

3 Doors Down Play for National Guard Units

Their current album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.

That's a testament to the devotion of their fans.

http://dod.feedroom.com/?fr_story=FRdamp329183&rf=rss

[Big Blue Owl]

Yellowstone Earthquakes Under Supervolcano Caldera

December 30, 2008 05:47 AM ET | James Pethokoukis | Permanent Link | Print

The headline "Scientists track unusual earthquake swarm beneath Yellowstone" only means one thing to fans of the Discovery channel like myself: supervolcano. Here is what the earthquake center at the University of Utah had to say yesterday afternoon:

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a notable swarm of earthquakes has been underway since December 26 beneath Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, three to six miles south-southeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. This energetic sequence of events was most intense on December 27, when the largest number of events of magnitude 3 and larger occurred.

The largest of the earthquakes was a magnitude 3.9 (revised from magnitude 3. at 10:15 pm MST on Dec. 27. The sequence has included nine events of magnitude 3 to 3.9 and approximately 24 of magnitude 2 to 3 at the time of this release. A total of more than 250 events large enough to be located have occurred in this swarm. Reliable depths of the larger events are up to a few miles. Visitors and National Park Service (NPS) employees in the Yellowstone Lake area reported feeling the largest of these earthquakes.

Earthquakes are a common occurrence in the Yellowstone National Park area, an active volcanic-tectonic area averaging 1,000 to 2,000 earthquakes a year. Yellowstone's 10,000 geysers and hot springs are the result of this geologic activity. A summary of the Yellowstone's volcanic history is available on the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory web site (listed below).

This December 2008 earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years and is centered on the east side of the Yellowstone caldera. Scientists can not identify any causative fault or other feature without further analysis. Seismologists continue to monitor and analyze the data and will issue new information if the situation warrants it.

The University of Utah operates a seismic network in Yellowstone National Park in conjunction with the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). These three institutions are partners in the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

And what if the supervolcano blew? Kind of like if a giant rock hit the Earth. A planet killer. An extinction-level event. Let me quote the words of President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) in the comet-hitting-earth film Deep Impact:

Within a week, the skies will be dark with dust from the impact and they will stay dark for years. All plant life will be dead within weeks. Animal life within a few months. So that's it. Good luck to us all.

Such a scenario would be very bad for equity values and the outlook for the labor market.

[awip2062]

That would be the worst volcano eruption ever.