Yeah, Perhaps Showering with the Boys Wasn't a Great Idea Afterall, Jerry

What Could Be More Normal, Huh?

A winning football coach

A charitable man

A “winner” in life by all outward appearances

Evidently, he was getting away with it for years because of superficial reasons and because he just seemed so gosh-darned “normal” (whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean).

He drug down others around him because they were unwilling to call him out for what he was (which evidently was a shower buddy for under-aged boys). 

What ever happened to disowning friends and family when they crossed the line and became completely weird and fucked up?  

What ever happened to: “Yeah, we’ve had a lot of laughs over the years and I counted you as my friend but dude… that’s fucked up and I’m going to call the cops now and throw your lousy boy-raping ass under the bus.”

Family Tradition

I'm told that some ass clown video game called Tour of Duty or some other such clever name has been launched with new game features and it is all the rage with a certain segment of the population. 

If I hear anyone piss and moan about war and the veterans and their plight, I drown it out.  I don't listen.  Just like we as a country don't listen to Eisenhower's warning against allowing the rise of a military industrial complex.  If we as a people want to glorify war, don't give me the sob stories about missing limbs, damaged mental capacities, lost years and lost lives.  We choose it most of the time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... all that group activity shit under the watchful eye of some control freak mother fucker in a Smokey Bear hat is for the fucking birds.  If this country is ever invaded, that's one thing.  Decade long military adventures abroad are a horse of another color.

They're Gonna Miss the Bunga Bunga Invites When He's Gone

The best bunga bunga that government money and power can buy.
"Both European Union leaders and markets had been exerting intense pressure on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign in recent weeks. Yet now that he has indicated a willingness to step aside, the uncertainty seems greater than ever."

Stocks Plunge 3% On Italy

The latest in market histrionic disorder right here.

And really, who cares anymore?  Gee whiz, some rich T. Coddington Van VorHees VIII type of bastard invested in the equities market will have to make do with water skiing behind two yachts instead of three.... wow, that's just way too fucking bad, huh?

I knew an Italian woman once who told me that her Grandmother had a phrase she was fond of - "You can die poor and have no shame, but you shouldn't die hungry."

We All Leave Las Vegas - One Way or The Other

The de-leveraging that is taking place today is uncomfortable for many people.  Although I peddle debt for a living, I’m not in that group.  Why is it uncomfortable for so many?  My thought is that it can be connected to a definition of cognitive dissonance that I came across.

"Cognitive dissonance is the mental conflict that people experience when they are presented with evidence that their beliefs or assumptions are wrong."
Montier (2002)

For many years, people have been led to believe that debt was not necessarily a bad thing.  Several generations have been led to believe that buying on credit wasn’t something that should be avoided - buying anything on credit – a house, an education, a car, the kitchen table, a flat screen television, a motorcycle, etc.  Politicians were no different.  They bought votes on credit as well.  It’s unraveling just as it should.  The “hair of the dog” for an alcoholic is a form of cognitive dissonance in that it is two conflicting thoughts held in the mind at the same time – the drunk knows that one more drink isn’t really going to help him or her with his or her root problem…but it makes the unpleasant thought of drying out go away for a little while.

BUTTSCRATCHER!?!

"If big banks get to settle with the SEC without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, what good does a settlement do in the end?"

To admit or deny -- that is the question

We have the best democracy that money can buy.  It's back scratching (or butt scratching whichever you prefer).