Recovery aa - My couch potato evening and other ramblings

Author

My couch potato evening and other ramblings

Craig S.

2004-10-25, 7:06 pm

Anybody catch 'CNN Presents' last night - an in-depth examination of the
sweeping evangelical movement in the U.S.? Is it just me, or are those
folks really scary? Listening to that little girl was particularly
frightening - that family's mindless rote and lack of tolerance for other
beliefs was quite disheartening. Best as I can tell, a lack of suicide
bombers is about the only thing separating the intolerant Evangelical
Christian extremists from the intolerant Muslim extremists.

Then I stayed tuned for Larry King's interview with Mary Kay Letourneau. I
sensed there were several moments that Larry wanted to reach across and slap
her in order to get a simple, straight answer. I felt his pain. Jeez, what
a nut.

I mentioned to my wife over the weekend that it didn't seem like that long
ago that gasoline was below a dollar a gallon. I looked it up - 1998/99.
So gasoline is double what it was five years ago. And it's significantly
more than it was just a year or two ago. Which leads me to wonder what
isn't getting purchased? I mean, wages haven't really increased to match
fuel increases, and a family typically only has so many dollars to go
around, so if gasoline has risen 50 or 60% in a year's time and people
haven't really curtailed their driving behavior yet, then Peter is being
robbed to pay Paul and the gas pumps, so what's Peter not getting? Meals
out? Durable goods? Savings? Or is debt simply increasing? (Our mega
government sure sets a piss-poor example for the citizens.)

I've been balancing on the fence over the presidential race. I sure don't
like what has transpired in Iraq, but I don't live in Iraq, I live and run a
business right here in the good ol' US of A. Kerry and Edwards are sure no
friends of small business. Unfortunately, neither are either of my
entrenched Democratic U.S. Senators nor two of this state's entrenched
Democratic Representatives. Plus, I don't believe that there's much Kerry
can do to alter the situation in Iraq at this point - like it or not, we're
in it for the long haul - despite his rhetoric.

I'm a big believer in allowing the market to regulate itself as far as wages
go and strongly dislike government interference such as prevailing wage laws
(what a joke), so Kerry's push to substantially increase the federal minimum
wage is distasteful to me. And one thing he hasn't addressed to my
satisfaction is moving to allow small businesses to pool employees through
associations in order to provide affordable health care to employees -
something that Bush is in favor of. And as far as I'm concerned, Edwards'
ilk is a prime contributing factor in skyrocketing health care and insurance
costs.

I'm just sorry we don't have better (in my perception) choices this year
because Bush gives me the creeps, especially with his little drooling grin
when he gets in a zinger, but at least he's a known creep. Seems like he
got a big pile of shit dumped in his lap with 9/11. At least he didn't just
sit there sniffing it for four years. His actions may be questionable, but
he has acted. The progress in Afghanistan would be bordering on phenomenal
if that country's GDP wasn't still based on the poppy crop. Capturing the
figurehead Bin Laden at this point would only be a ceremonial coup in the
battle against Al Qaida. Muslim extremism is a fact of life that we in the
United States had better get used to - and continue securing our own borders
accordingly.

Family and the integrity of marriage are important to me. One thing I
respect about Bush is that he did whatever it took to save his marriage and
his family a number of years ago when he was on shaky ground. Kerry threw
in the towel. And I think I like Laura better than Teresa Heinz - she's
stayed in the shadows where she belongs.

David M

2004-10-25, 7:06 pm

Keep practicing, Craig. Andy Rooney can't have more than a few
years left. ;-)

Ray Pearson

2004-10-25, 7:07 pm

"David M" <dhmce@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:2u4t0uF24bv4dU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Keep practicing, Craig. Andy Rooney can't have more than
a few
> years left. ;-)
>
>

Ray Pearson

2004-10-25, 7:07 pm

"David M" <dhmce@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:2u4t0uF24bv4dU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Keep practicing, Craig. Andy Rooney can't have more than
a few
> years left. ;-)

since my "XXXX Politics" post I will refrain from explaining
the irony of this post coming from DE.

R
--
The only difference between tattooed people and un-tattooed
people is that tattooed people are alot more cool and can
kick
your XXX

F.H.

2004-10-25, 7:07 pm

David M wrote:

> Keep practicing, Craig. Andy Rooney can't have more than a few
> years left. ;-)

LMAO

Ted F.

2004-10-27, 7:06 am

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:23:31 -0400, "Craig S."
<cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote:

>
>Family and the integrity of marriage are important to me. One thing I
>respect about Bush is that he did whatever it took to save his marriage and
>his family a number of years ago when he was on shaky ground. Kerry threw
>in the towel. And I think I like Laura better than Teresa Heinz - she's
>stayed in the shadows where she belongs.
>

Sounds like a vote for Bozo the Clown.

Ted F.

Craig S.

2004-10-27, 11:06 am

"Ted F." <ted.fletcher@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:g8vun0hbotg27isiru9duu860hdkrohtl3@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:23:31 -0400, "Craig S."
> <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote:
>
>
and[vbcol=seagreen]
threw[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> Sounds like a vote for Bozo the Clown.

Ted, please feel free to vote your conscience. 8~)

I get a kick out of folks getting inordinately riled up during presidential
campaigns - rooting for their favorite candidate like the joker will walk on
water for the next four years if elected. Ha! American presidents are just
magnified examples of the fallibility of humans in general. They'll say
nearly anything to get elected and will toss out aspersions against their
rivals like candy at a Christmas parade. They make it sound like it will be
a cakewalk to "turn the country around" or "assure our security." Then the
reality settles in almost as soon as the inaugural balls are over.

Ted L.

2004-10-27, 11:06 am

"Craig S." <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutcharter.net> wrote in message
news:10nv4cbbjfrg356@corp.supernews.com...
> I get a kick out of folks getting inordinately riled up during
presidential
> campaigns - rooting for their favorite candidate like the joker will walk
on
> water for the next four years if elected. Ha! American presidents are
just
> magnified examples of the fallibility of humans in general. They'll say
> nearly anything to get elected and will toss out aspersions against their
> rivals like candy at a Christmas parade. They make it sound like it will
be
> a cakewalk to "turn the country around" or "assure our security." Then
the
> reality settles in almost as soon as the inaugural balls are over.
>
>

If it weren't for the other long-term damage four more years of Dubya could
do, I almost hate to let him get off easy by being voted out of office
rather than having to deal with the mess he's gotten us into.

--
Ted L.

Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini.

David M

2004-10-27, 7:06 pm

Craig S. wrote:

> American presidents are just magnified examples of the
> fallibility of humans in general. They'll say nearly anything
to
> get elected and will toss out aspersions against their rivals
like
> candy at a Christmas parade. They make it sound like it will
be
> a cakewalk to "turn the country around" or "assure our
> security." Then the reality settles in almost as soon as the
> inaugural balls are over.

Nah. They just blame it on the last guy.

Craig S.

2004-10-27, 7:06 pm

"David M" <dhmce@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:2ua3g2F286qkuU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Craig S. wrote:
>
> to
> like
> be
>
> Nah. They just blame it on the last guy.

Incumbents running for reelection are screwed; after 4 years in office they
*are* the last guy. Their job is to convince everyone how great things have
been while their opponent's job is to convince everyone how bad it's been.
Reminds me of a pal of mine who works as a sales rep. After 20 years with
one manufacturer he experienced the fallout of a corporate shake-up. He
ended up going to work for his main competitor all those years. I asked him
how he could face himself in the mirror each morning after talking trash
about that line all those years. Just goes to show that moolah soothes many
wounds.

David M

2004-10-27, 7:06 pm

Craig S. wrote:
> "David M" wrote:

[vbcol=seagreen]
> Incumbents running for reelection are screwed; after 4 years
> in office they *are* the last guy. Their job is to convince
> everyone how great things have been. . . .

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But, according to our present
incumbent, we are *still* struggling with the Clinton recession.
And 9/11 was caused, at least in part, by Clinton's failure to
kick some real XXX after the *first* WTC attack.

Positively 62nd Street

2004-10-27, 10:06 pm

"Craig S." <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote in message
news:10nqenhl9068u53@corp.supernews.com...
<snip thoughtful considerations>
>
> Family and the integrity of marriage are important to me. One thing I
> respect about Bush is that he did whatever it took to save his marriage
and
> his family a number of years ago when he was on shaky ground. Kerry threw
> in the towel.

Yes. The candidates' positions on family and integrity, maybe the strongest
points of Mr. Bush, do not get adequate airplay among all the clutter and
clatter. You've encouraged me to compare, Craig.

Let's see:

One did his duty, obeyed orders and then came home to express his concerns
about what was happening to our soldiers and their families, and to the
women and children over there. The other stood in front of Congress and
camera and lied to mothers and fathers around the world so he could further
his family's agenda and then pretended to send their children off to die for
things he knew didn't exist... afterward, he stood in front of audiences and
cavalierly made jokes about them not ever finding it.

It does make it awful hard to decide, so I've been considering what their
respective church leaders have to say in counsel to us all. One's leaders
are suggesting he not receive full standing for his stance on things like
medicine and women's health. The other's leaders haven't stood up to be
counted yet on their follower's false witness and mass murder... although
their faithful are urging him wildly on. I'm trying to stay objective until
the last moment, though... I see there are some others in our great society
that are now thoughtfully asking his Christian Elders 'Who Would Jesus
Bomb', so I'll hold off until I see how they pastor us on the question.

<snip the rest before the Mrs. sees it and thinks *I* wrote it>

Good post, Craig. Well thought out.

GaryE

2004-10-27, 10:06 pm

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:37:09 -0400, "Craig S."
<cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote:

>
>Incumbents running for reelection are screwed; after 4 years in office they
>*are* the last guy. Their job is to convince everyone how great things have
>been while their opponent's job is to convince everyone how bad it's been.
>Reminds me of a pal of mine who works as a sales rep. After 20 years with
>one manufacturer he experienced the fallout of a corporate shake-up. He
>ended up going to work for his main competitor all those years. I asked him
>how he could face himself in the mirror each morning after talking trash
>about that line all those years. Just goes to show that moolah soothes many
>wounds.
>
The best sales guys are chameleons.

Grace H.

2004-10-27, 10:06 pm

in article 2u9qqgF28n32iU1@uni-berlin.de, Ted L. at
TedL719nospamplease@yahoo.com wrote on 10/27/04 7:48 AM:

> "Craig S." <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutcharter.net> wrote in message
> news:10nv4cbbjfrg356@corp.supernews.com...
> presidential
> on
> just
> be
> the
>
> If it weren't for the other long-term damage four more years of Dubya could
> do, I almost hate to let him get off easy by being voted out of office
> rather than having to deal with the mess he's gotten us into.
>
> --
> Ted L.
>
> Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini.
>
>
There are courts for that, Ted.

dorsal

2004-10-27, 10:06 pm

Positively 62nd Street wrote:
|| "Craig S." <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote in
|| message news:10nqenhl9068u53@corp.supernews.com...
|| <snip thoughtful considerations>
|||
||| Family and the integrity of marriage are important to me. One
||| thing I respect about Bush is that he did whatever it took to save
||| his marriage and his family a number of years ago when he was on
||| shaky ground. Kerry threw in the towel.
||
|| Yes. The candidates' positions on family and integrity, maybe the
|| strongest points of Mr. Bush, do not get adequate airplay among all
|| the clutter and clatter. You've encouraged me to compare, Craig.
||
|| Let's see:
||
|| One did his duty, obeyed orders and then came home to express his
|| concerns about what was happening to our soldiers and their
|| families, and to the women and children over there.

Would this be the same one who threw away his medals?

The other stood
|| in front of Congress and camera and lied to mothers and fathers
|| around the world so he could further his family's agenda and then
|| pretended to send their children off to die for things he knew
|| didn't exist... afterward, he stood in front of audiences and
|| cavalierly made jokes about them not ever finding it.
||
|| It does make it awful hard to decide, so I've been considering what
|| their respective church leaders have to say in counsel to us all.
|| One's leaders are suggesting he not receive full standing for his
|| stance on things like medicine and women's health. The other's
|| leaders haven't stood up to be counted yet on their follower's false
|| witness and mass murder... although their faithful are urging him
|| wildly on. I'm trying to stay objective until the last moment,
|| though... I see there are some others in our great society that are
|| now thoughtfully asking his Christian Elders 'Who Would Jesus Bomb',
|| so I'll hold off until I see how they pastor us on the question.
||
|| <snip the rest before the Mrs. sees it and thinks *I* wrote it>
||
||
||
|| Good post, Craig. Well thought out.

Ted F.

2004-10-28, 2:06 am

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:16:47 -0500, "David M" <dhmce@insightbb.com>
wrote:

>Craig S. wrote:
>
>
>
>You'd think so, wouldn't you? But, according to our present
>incumbent, we are *still* struggling with the Clinton recession.
>And 9/11 was caused, at least in part, by Clinton's failure to
>kick some real XXX after the *first* WTC attack.
>

Clinton recession? Didnt Clinton leave a RECORD surplus?
Dont you 'now' have a RECORD deficit?
It must be somebody elses fault.
Vote Bozo and the rest of the circus, out.

Ted F.

roland

2004-10-28, 2:06 am

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 18:33:23 -0700, "Grace H." <graceh@spiritone.com>
wrote:

>There are courts for that, Ted.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Phew..., thanks for the laugh.

roland
------
"War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. ... The strongest passions, and the most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and du
ty of peace."
James Madison

Craig S.

2004-10-28, 7:06 am

"dorsal" <dorsal@fin.com> wrote in message
news:8YYfd.31381$9b.26633@edtnps84...
> Positively 62nd Street wrote:
> || "Craig S." <cspurlocktakethisout@takethisoutmtneer.net> wrote in
> || message news:10nqenhl9068u53@corp.supernews.com...
> || <snip thoughtful considerations>
> |||
> ||| Family and the integrity of marriage are important to me. One
> ||| thing I respect about Bush is that he did whatever it took to save
> ||| his marriage and his family a number of years ago when he was on
> ||| shaky ground. Kerry threw in the towel.
> ||
> || Yes. The candidates' positions on family and integrity, maybe the
> || strongest points of Mr. Bush, do not get adequate airplay among all
> || the clutter and clatter. You've encouraged me to compare, Craig.
> ||
> || Let's see:
> ||
> || One did his duty, obeyed orders and then came home to express his
> || concerns about what was happening to our soldiers and their
> || families, and to the women and children over there.
>
> Would this be the same one who threw away his medals?

He only threw away his ribbons. He left his medals at home that day.

Craig S.

2004-10-28, 7:06 am

"Positively 62nd Street" <not_likely@all.notatall> wrote in message
news:V-udnQ4kh8fJ2R3cRVn-pg@giganews.com...

> Yes. The candidates' positions on family and integrity, maybe the
strongest
> points of Mr. Bush, do not get adequate airplay among all the clutter and
> clatter. You've encouraged me to compare, Craig.

Nyuk, nyuk. Hey, if anybody is interested, I listened to one of the most
"fair and balanced" representations and comparisons of the candidates to
date last night. (Amazingly balanced considering it was on left leaning
public radio.) For anyone interested, you can listen here or read the
transcript. The candidates have been very different men from their college
days on. Takes all kinds - different people are able to use different types
of personal strengths to propel themselves to the top:
http://americanradioworks.publicrad...oice/index.html

Grace H.

2004-10-28, 11:06 am

in article sg21o053b131hf30kckqjehhqsbmgtb6hh@4ax.com, Ted F. at
ted.fletcher@lycos.com wrote on 10/27/04 10:58 PM:

> On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:16:47 -0500, "David M" <dhmce@insightbb.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> Clinton recession? Didnt Clinton leave a RECORD surplus?
> Dont you 'now' have a RECORD deficit?
> It must be somebody elses fault.
> Vote Bozo and the rest of the circus, out.
>
> Ted F.
>
It is just an example of how Bushco twists the facts around. Here, the Rs
are all up in arms about how the Ds might "steal the election". It is spin,
Ted, and nothing else.

Chronocidal Charlie

2004-10-29, 7:06 am

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Craig S. wrote:

| I mentioned to my wife over the weekend that it didn't seem like that long
| ago that gasoline was below a dollar a gallon. I looked it up - 1998/99.
| So gasoline is double what it was five years ago. And it's significantly
| more than it was just a year or two ago. Which leads me to wonder what
| isn't getting purchased? I mean, wages haven't really increased to match
| fuel increases, and a family typically only has so many dollars to go
| around, so if gasoline has risen 50 or 60% in a year's time and people
| haven't really curtailed their driving behavior yet, then Peter is being
| robbed to pay Paul and the gas pumps, so what's Peter not getting? Meals
| out? Durable goods? Savings? Or is debt simply increasing? (Our mega
| government sure sets a piss-poor example for the citizens.)

Peter seems to be showing a lot of the symptoms in the right hand column
of this page:

http://1stholistic.com/Nutrition/ho...ef-symptoms.htm

Which leads me to believe Peter is being left hanging to pay Piper Paul
in a lot of respects and a lot of stop gap methods being used to try to
get him back up and going.

If the content of the mega tons of Spam I see going into one of my
unfiltered mail boxes is any indicator.

It seems to consist mainly of advertisements for Viagra, Penis
enhancement programs, cheap anti-depressants, concentrate caffeine,
amphetamine, steroid prowess extenders, and lately a huge increase in
imitation Rolex watches and "drive now, pay later, for a long time" auto
deals on impressing wheels for wanna be big wheels.

I was thinking from late eighties, or early nineties during the period
right after I'd had my first heart attack and suffered some pretty heavy
whacks to my financial health and was looking for some collateral to
enable me to cheaply rent a bunch of money for a long time to bail me
out of some things and it was pointed out to me that at that time a
Texan couldn't just pick up a phone and call his local lender and hock
his home. I think out of stater's and stuff have made that kind of easy
now.

Must be, cause about eighty five percent of stuff I get e-mail or on my
answering machine is letters or voice mail telling me that my debt
consolidation loan has been pre-approved mentioning second mortgages and
real property. Dunno, ain't investigated it too much since I no longer
own any property nor have a hell of a lot of debts that need
consolidating and I guess they got me mixed up with someone else unless
my Alzheimer's is kicking in and I'm submitting a lot of credit
requests and applications that I just don't remember having submitted. ;-)

But a quick run on Google this morning tells me that I get 9,380,000
hits for the keyword "bankruptcy"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...%22&btnG=Search

351,000 for "foreclosure listings"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...%22&btnG=Search

about 4,090,000 for "Debt consolidation"

http://www.google.com/search?source...onsolidation%22

about 393,000 for "Cheap Viagra"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...%22&btnG=Search

about 151,000 for discount antidepressants that seem to be pretty lax
about prescriptions. ;-)

And then too from the distaff side it seems the style industry is
gearing up, or at least I seen an article some place the other day on a
maker of manikins expecting to get rich making "Big Dummies" for
clothing store displays to relieve shopping angst for them people who
have difficulty tolerating all the Ken and Barbie displays in windows.
Gonna make display windows look more Roseanne, Dan and family and
average American. ;-)

Any one remember when SUV's became popular. Didn't it have something to
do with Sports Utility, off road and certain categories of vehicles
being exempt from qualifying for certain gas consumption, horse power
ratings and other stuff the g'ment imposed on the manufacture of
ordinary old automobiles to keep them economical and fuel efficient.

I remember taking a trip across the United states in about 1973 in
convoy with my wife and three kids in two 390 cubic inch or so
automobiles and counting miles and every last drop of gasoline and
packing five gallon jerry cans reserve for the miles and miles of closed
gas stations out on the Interstates and then dumping both of them in a
years time for mini 1800 CC range economy autos. ;-)

But I splurged. I been driving a 2000 CC now for 16 years. ;-)

But I finally just about got Piper Paul paid off but Peter done
atrophied from malnutrition. ;-(

CC

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Ray Pearson

2004-10-29, 7:07 pm