National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre blamed Hollywood, video games music, the courts and more on Friday for creating a culture of violence in the United States.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said at a Washington press event, adding, “With all the money in the federal budget can’t we afford to put a police officer in every single school?”
The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida
Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually
Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia
Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications
Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks
@favorhamilton: I realize I have made highly irrational choices and I take full responsibility for them. I am not a victim here and knew what I was doing.
@favorhamilton: I was drawn to escorting in large part because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging
@favorhamilton: time with my marriage and my life. It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in. It was a double life.
@favorhamilton: I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression.
@favorhamilton: As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody.
@favorhamilton: I have been seeking the help of a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue to do so after I have put things together.
@favorhamilton: I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am to anyone I have hurt as a result of my actions and greatly appreciate the support of my family
@favorhamilton: and those closest to me. I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend.
Allow me to translate: Especially at middle age and after squirting out a kid or two and knowing that the "looks train" is slowly but surely pulling out of the station, it is fun having sex with complete strangers who you will never have to see again if you don't want to and it makes it even more of a thrill when they are going to pay you for it.
Step off bitch...there are plenty of skanks that look just as good as you who need the $600 per hour more than you do.
hard to believe he could have been a heart beat away...
Moving mistress Rielle Hunter and their love child Quinn closer to his North Carolina home may have made John Edwards happy - but the same cannot be said about his neighbors. It was reported today the disgraced politician and Hunter get so frisky and loud during their bedtime trysts, they have received complaints about the noise. The former presidential candidate, 59, is said to spend most nights at the Chapel Hill home he recently bought for Rielle and a source told The National Enquirer: 'It has pretty much turned into his booze and sex romp hideaway.' The source added: 'When they get a little tipsy, they get so frisky that their lovemaking becomes embarrassingly loud.
“In fact, a song is something you write because you can't sleep”
Joe carried the curse of being able to spot authority that was not grounded in wisdom.He had the misfortune of being able to see authority that was corrupt. Being powerless to change it doesn’t mean that one cannot cast a spotlight upon it and mock it… so if you’re in power, calling the shots and you are clueless and corrupt and reading the drivel I write so I can sleep – suck it.
A whole lot of presents did not get delivered Monday when an armed robber carjacked a UPS van and unloaded it with an accomplice in East St. Louis.The UPS delivery driver was making deliveries before 1 p.m. Monday in the 500 block of North 22nd Street when a man wearing a ski mask jumped aboard the van and pointed a gun, East St. Louis Police Chief Michael Floore said. The delivery man was forced to drive to 37th and Caseyville Avenue, where the masked gunman used a cell phone to make a call.
News-Democrat O'Fallon police are asking for help in tracking down a suspect who broke away from security officers at the Walmart on Highway 50 and escaped.The man was apprehended by store security Tuesday after alledgedly stealing items from the store. Before he could be turned over to police, he pushed a security officer to the ground and ran off.The suspect is a white male with a thin build and short dark brown hair. He was wearing a navy lightweight jacket and a pair of khaki pants.Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call O'Fallon police at 624-4545.
O’Fallon police are looking for this suspect wanted in connection with an alleged theft Tuesday at the Wal Mart store on Highway 50.
So....you'd like to buy a gun (or guns) but you have a member of your household who is a little "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" huh? Well, say no more... we have just what you need here at the Smug Bastard Shooting Emporium....
Just remember newbie gun owners, the life or lives you save may include your own.
This sign was found on the fence of bomber Andrew Kehoe after the explosions.
Anyone reading this drivel is well aware that your old Uncle Kenny is a fan of the shooting sports and an avid pheasant hunter. Make no mistake, I enjoy shooting clays/skeet and pheasants unlucky enough to cross paths with Bing the Wonder Dog - not to brag but he had four points under his belt in the first 40 minutes of hunting yesterday morning. I enjoy dove hunting in late summer. And yes, the Bing household eats what it kills - the dog, the cat and the old Smug Bastard enjoy fried pheasant strips, bacon wrapped dove breasts, quail and rice, etc., etc.
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Our problem is a cultural problem well blended with a problem of stupidity. It is a problem of adherence to dogma, a willingness to follow the tail of the lemmings, and a lack of critical thinking.We will always have evil and/or mentally ill persons walking amongst us and they will from time to time find ways of irrationally lashing out at victims who are often smaller, weaker and more vulnerable than themselves. But, events such as the one that occurred on this Friday past should be rarities - not commonplace.
"It looks like this double-murder-suicide came down to a broke man angry over not getting enough of his dying wife's assets.
Investigators say the woman had been recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, and her common-law husband was upset over her plans to divide her assets after her death.
The daughter was visiting from Florida to help put her mother's affairs in order.
Killing over the assets of the dying, murdering for the last scraps in a desperate America. That's what the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed have brought us to."
"To receive F.H.A. backing on their loans, borrowers must have a credit score of at least 580 out of a possible 850, and they are required to put down at least 3.5 percent. F.H.A. allows the borrowers whose loans it insures to have a monthly housing debt payment of around 30 percent of their incomes."
Kenny Bing translation - very sketchy borrowers with a fair number of pay day loans can buy a shack so long as they can beg, borrow or steal 3.5% of the total price and F.H.A. will lend them the remainder...what could go wrong??!??
"Still, 40 percent of the 2010 loans in the F.H.A.’s insurance portfolio were made to borrowers whose total monthly debt payments were greater than 50 percent of their monthly incomes or had a credit store of less than 660, the study found, a dangerous level."
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. - Gerald R. Ford
A klutz but he knew a few things about government and civics - and a not too shabby golfer.
"As many as one in seven families across America with Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages will lose their homes to foreclosure in coming years, according to a landmark study by a former executive vice president and chief credit officer at Fannie Mae. The FHA mortgage program is intended to help low and moderate income families, and first-time purchasers, to buy homes and build equity, but American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Edward J. Pinto said the federal agency is "engaging in practices resulting in a high proportion of low- and moderate-income families losing their homes."
Want to remove about 95% of all this bru-ha-ha about gay marriage from the news? Get real about the fucking tax code already and stop treating married couples more favorably than unmarried couples and/or singles.
"In fact, many areas of U.S. tax law are written to provide married couples with greater benefits than those received by other individuals - the same is true for retirement plans, which offer several perks for those who have tied the knot."
"Even if Gonzales is granted a two-year reprieve from eviction, Spanish law still mandates that she and her ex-husband will still owe almost €140,000 ($183,000) on the mortgage, court fees and interest for the rest of their lives. If they don't pay off the debt, their children — now 13 and 8 — inherit it."
Now honestly, wouldn't you think that people would think twice before taking on crushing debts like the one Ms. Gonzales is saddled with given the way their laws are written. I would imagine it is common knowledge that if you borrow from the bank and don't repay, little Maria or Juan is going to replace you and become the grist for the debt mill...after the bank has pretty much clawed you a new bung hole and hollowed you out.
When I was a kid in Mississippi, I saw a dead cow in a pasture and I kicked the corpse. To my disgust, an opossom crawled out of the cow. It had chewed an opening in the cow's ass and was up inside the corpse gorging itself...nasty little bastard.
I see some very white faces and some very American sounding names….nothing wrong with that…except when they seem to be grossly overpaid for the results produced….
Now, let’s consider what the residents of the great White Ivory Towers have been telling the peasants for years about how fucking great globalization is – we have nice super cheap products made by 3rd World labor half way around the globe. But globalization is a two edged sword. What the enlightened masters of the universe DO NOT tell the peasants is that now the US born peasants performing labor here will have to compete with the peasant labor from abroad even as the American peasant must live within the American economy….
fan-fucking-tastic
Well, I propose that what is good for the goose is good for the gander… I am betting dollars to do-nuts that there are now TONS of highly educated folk from say India or China that would gladly waltz on over to the US of A to do the tasks of the Fannie Mae Senior Management Team (or other white collar bureaucrats) for a FRACTION of the cost and I would also bet more dollars to do-nuts that they would do a better job of running the GSE.
I propose an experiment - Let's outsource some overpaid white collar jobs for a change. And then, let's see if all the kumbaya, we are the goddamned world singing folk still hum a merry tune about the glories of goddamned globalization when their own outsized, bloated paychecks are on the line.... Methinks they will all suddenly find religion...and patriotism....and fucking flag waving jingoism...
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies . . . If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] . . . will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered . . . The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson (hmmmm.... is it possible that Jefferson was actually something more than just a dirty old white dude who like to get his freak on with "the help" and had a few worthwhile thoughts from time to time????)
The monthly increase was the highest since May 2011, and with August's 421K new impoverished America, over 1 million Americans made the EBT card their new best friend. It is unclear just which atmospheric phenomenon will get the blame for this unprecedented surge in poverty, which comes at a time when the pre-election economic data euphoria was adamant that the US economy was on an escape velocity to utopia.
Because of a mistake I made when I was a teenager and a desire to try to "do the right thing", I had the misfortune of being married to one of these types for a couple of decades.... maybe that is why I have the dispositon that I have.... we are all shaped by our experiences in life, right?
Aesop's Fable:
The Ass and His Purchaser
A man wished to purchase an Ass, and decided to give the animal a test before buying him. He took the Ass home and put him in the field with his other Asses.
The new Ass strayed from the others to join the one that was the laziest and the biggest eater of them all.
Seeing this, the man led him back to his owner. When the owner asked how he could have tested the Ass in such a short time, the man answered, "I didn't even need to see how he worked. I knew he would be just like the one he chose to be his friend."
I can't say she was lazy but she sure as hell was the "biggest eater" and addicted to attention getting, self-made drama.... narcissitic control freak bitch on a never ending ego trip to fill the perpetually half full glass...good fucking riddance.
Keeping up with the Joneses
I have recently seen many people so blindly focused on one tiny aspect of their balance sheet diving into buying a home because they "ran the numbers". In fact, one couple I know bought last year and on paper, everything looked good. Heavily discounted home compared to bubble price. Just a bit more than renting on a net-net basis. That is, until they started trying to keep up with their neighbors. First, they “had” to buy a new car. After all, that 10 year old car looked like a clunker in a neighborhood with $40,000 to $60,000 SUVs. So add that as a new expense. These cars carry a much higher insurance premium. Add more to your monthly insurance. They also needed new furniture so there goes thousands of dollars. The spending is only beginning. They now need to update the kitchen and living room to match up with other hipsters. Clearly they have not worked with contractors in SoCal. The bill is going to jump up very quickly.
This is largely what happens. They also had to put their kids in a more expensive prep school. If all goes well, these kids might get accepted to a great college (if private, look at $50,000+ inflation adjusted to the future per year unless they are super star scholars). Then add to the mix that this will be the “starter home” and they will look to move into a bigger (more expensive) home shortly. 5 to 6 percent will come off the top in that transaction.
So on paper, yes, it didn’t seem all that bad of a move to buy. Yet ancillary spending increased dramatically. Also, many younger people that buy are likely to lose one income for a period of time after a child is born if they plan on starting a family shortly after buying. If they go back to work, add in the cost of daycare. That is a sizeable hit to the bottom line.
"Bank of America is in the most precarious position, analysts say, in part because of its acquisition of the troubled subprime lender Countrywide Financial."
"One has to wonder what events could provide positive momentum to GDP growth, push corporate earnings to record highs as the consensus predicts as early as next year, or generate any lasting inflation, for that matter. It's the people that make these pricing decisions. Businesses can only price up to what consumers are willing to pay. It is households that determine whether or not we have inflation, not some bureaucrat in Washington who believes he has control over some printing press."
Howard Schultz says he is surprised by how popular the $7 coffee is among Starbucks customers.
When the Fed pumps credit into a system full of consumers who are willing to fork over 7 present day Ben Bernanke Fun Bucks or 7+ future date Ben Bernanke Fun Buck Credits for a goddamned cup of coffee, it is a match made in Heaven...or Hell, or Starbucks (which might actually be one of the circles of Hell) whichever you prefer....
A Bill Bonner phrase that goes something like - Mr. Market seldom gives us what we expect but he always gives us what we deserve...sometimes good and hard.
Reading Paglia’s drivel (which changes tone/direction from one decade to the next depending upon how much and how coarse the sand in her vagina is at that particular moment in time – given the age induced dryness of the region, even small amounts of sand are probably pretty abrasive for the old girl so cut her some slack) had me next out on Google to look for any news on the present day feelings of recent Obama voters and lo and behold, more than a happy few of the Hopey Changey's are feeling a tad of buyer's remorse ...or something like that…
"Urban rappers’ notorious sexism seems to have made black female performers stronger and more defiant. But middle-class white girls, told that every career is open to them and encouraged to excel at athletics, are faced with slacker white boys nagged by the PC thought police into suppressing their masculinity -- which gets diverted instead into video games and the flourishing genre of online pornography."
....so by treating whitey blondie girl as something more equal than their fathers treated whitey blondie girls of their own generations, somehow the little blondie whitey boys are to blame for the the shortcomings of all the little white girls??? ....so what you're sayin' Camille is that you wish all the little whitey blondie boys would treat all the little whitey blondie girls the same way the "urban rappers" treat their "bitches" so as to make them stronger and more defiant? ....am I feelin' you on that one....
- methinks that the 60 something year old product of the 60's and 70's & feminist social critic doth continue to findeth just a tad too much sand in her vagina... Good grief, hurry up and fill a casket already and message me back from the great beyond to let me know if God truly was man's best invention....
"We're losing money on every deal, but we're making it up in volume."
"This insured mortgage product has allowed many buyers to go in with 30x leverage when purchasing a new home. So it should come as no surprise that the FHA is now inching closer to a bailout.
First, mortgage insurance premiums are soaring to make up for the capital reserve account that now finds itself $16 billion in the red.
What is occurring in the FHA is symbolic of what is now part of our economy. Essentially we have turned into a massive moral hazard economy. Major subsidies to hide losses and pushing problems down the road.
Now with the FHA running low on cash this is a cash cow for them but the burden is now placed on current buyers to make up for the mess created in the last few years (does this sound familiar?). Welcome to the current economy. And how many people actually have the $100,000 for a down payment? As we highlighted in our heavily commented California middle class article, not many because many are going with this much more expensive FHA insured loans product. Like an expensive credit card, people are stretching their wallets to purchase that home because incomes are certainly not rising."
"Jack Bogle built Vanguard into a $2.2 trillion behemoth by selling low-cost mutual funds. Invite him to lunch at a fancy New York City restaurant, and he orders a hamburger"
A dude that knows what the hell he is doing and probably doesn't make amateur mistakes on his tax returns...looking at you, Special Timmy....
"Bogle has met me to talk about his new book, The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs. Speculation, in which he eviscerates most investing practices and much of what happens on Wall Street. "I don't pay attention to what others say. I say what I think," he tells me, while warily eyeing my Fall Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with petite lettuce, goat cheese, duck confit, figs, apple, and carrot vinaigrette. "I don't know how to do otherwise." (I think he wants to say something about my salad, but Jack does have some limits.)"
The Humane Society on Wednesday morning provided an update on Trooper's condition. The 5 ½-month-old pit bull puppy was dragged behind a truck Nov. 21 on Interstate 55 without the driver's knowledge after the dog's leash somehow became attached to the trailer hitch of the truck. The animal was dragged under a trailer pulled by the truck for about a mile, investigators said.
As for the reward, the Humane Society is working with local police to investigate who tied Trooper to the truck. An anonymous donor kicked in more money to bump the reward to $5,000. The money is for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
The pup's owner isn't known. He was named Trooper by the workers who treated him. He was in shock and suffered life-threatening injuries including exposed bones. He was treated at the Humane Society facility in Maryland Heights and was to be transferred to an emergency facility.
“He’s my little buddy,” she said. “He’s the little buddy of a lot of people here. He has touched people’s hearts.”
He has an “oustanding personality, a gentleness and tolerance,” Hill said. “When he has his bandages changed on a regular basis, which is not a pleasant experience, he’ll lay his head on our arm, not squirm.”
Hill said Trooper has “the sweetest eyes, you’re drawn to them.”
Hill said “we have some leads” about who tied the dog to the truck but she said the investigation continues.
- Good. Catch this miserable asshole and give him the choice of either going to Potosi or playing practice dummy for the remainder of the Rams' season. Room up with Bubba in Potosi or get run over by Steven Jackson over and over and over and over again...
"Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels argued in a Friday speech that “the most critical moment of the whole dreary campaign” for president was the release of Mitt Romney's videotaped comments to campaign donors.
At a forum hosted by the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale, Gov. Daniels said, “In one of those imaginary private occasions that no longer exist for people in public life, Governor Romney memorably discussed the 47% of Americans who, he said, are dependent on government and therefore would never vote for him. In his post-mortem after the election, he reportedly extended this theme, saying that too many people had allowed their votes to be bought with promises of someone else’s money.”
"I believe that the self-inflicted fatal blow of Mr. Romney’s statement came among Americans who find themselves in receipt of some form of government transfer, but reject or even despise the notion that they are permanent parasites for doing so."
The proof is in the Puddin' Pops!!
A Detroit city council member is asking President Obama to bail out the financially troubled city in return for residents’ overwhelmingly supporting his successful re-election bid.
“There ought to be a quid pro quo," said Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, according to My Fox Detroit.
Nearly 75 percent of voters in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, voted for Obama on Nov. 6.
A Detroit city council member is asking President Obama to bail out the financially troubled city in return for residents’ overwhelmingly supporting his successful re-election bid.
"After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C., and came home with some bacon," Watson said. "That's what you do," Watson said.
Young was Detroit's mayor for 20 years and served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1981."
"In the past, the FHFA charged the same guarantee fee in Texas or Arizona as it did in Illinois, New York and Florida, where judicial review is required and delays are most pronounced. The efficient states were subsidizing those with higher default costs. That could change soon.
Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee most mortgage loans made across the country, the fee increase would have an immediate impact. New borrowers in Illinois would pay a higher amount for their loans. That in turn would put one more drag on the local housing market.
Instead of acting to fix the problem, Illinois political leaders are fuming." - Kenny Bing translation, acting like petulant children.
"Lawmakers have made matters worse. Last year, Chicago aldermen adopted an ordinance requiring the FHFA to pay a $500 registration fee for vacant properties and conduct monthly inspections to ensure the properties are maintained. If the agency fails to comply, Chicago could impose financial penalties. The agency has sued to block the ordinance."
I used to hang my hat in Southern Illinois which is a world of difference from the greater Chicagoland. Make no mistake, there was a fair amount of hubris in ALL Illinois towns and cities during the run-up in real estate values (whatever that word is supposed to mean anymore). Everyday people thought they had somehow magically become King & Queen Shit of Turd Mountain just because they owned a shack with a bloated mortgage owed upon it...well oh how the mighty have fallen, huh? Well... Merry Christmas and Eat Shit and Die Chicago ho-ho-ho-moaners.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) of 1974, which is implemented by the Board’s Regulation B, applies to all creditors. The statute requires financial institutions and other firms engaged in the extension of credit to ‘‘make credit equally available to all creditworthy customers without regard to sex or marital status.’’ Moreover, the statute makes it unlawful for ‘‘any creditor to discriminate against any applicant with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction (1) on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract); (2) because all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program; or (3) because the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.’’ In keeping with the broad reach of the prohibition, the regulation covers creditor activities before, during, and after the extension of credit
Homeowners more than 50 years old are falling into foreclosure faster than any other age group, particularly widows whose husbands were the mortgage holders, said the New York Times.
Foreclosures among homeowners over 50 increased by 23% over the past five years, resulting in 1.5 million foreclosures. - Housing Wire
