Lucs Internet Guide

As you probably already know, on Oct 3rd Congress approved the revised, revised, revised version of the bailout plan that both Democrats and Republicans supported and pushed for.    If you’re wondering what this bailout was, don’t worry you’re not alone.  You’re probably like the majority of the country who felt if the bailout was not passed right away then the stock markets were going to crash hard, the economy was going to fall into a massive depression by November and we’d be living in a post-apocalyptic type of environment eating rats off the street by 2009.

LEADING UP TO THE BAILOUT

Well, like most other “urgent” things you hear on a day to day basis, this one was also filled with some exaggeration.  What basically happened was this housing bubble was artificially created by banks willing to give almost anyone with some semblance of good credit a loan to buy a house.  This gave a lot of people with spotty credit already living beyond their means a long-term loan they really couldn’t afford.

Few thought much about it because the bubble just kept expanding.  As more jumped into the bubble, the housing value skyrocketed allowing people who got in over their heads to just sell their houses and either break even, make a small profit, or take a small hit.   So a family buys this house at $100k, sells it a few years later at $150k.  Let’s say they sell it to a ‘house flipper‘  who does some work to it then sells it to another family for $200k.   That family gets in over their heads and sells it to someone else for $225k.  Another flipper comes in a few years later, adds another room and sells it for $300k.

That’s all fine and dandy, but then Sept 11th hits, gas prices skyrocket, President Bush enters a few wars, family budgets get tighter, gas prices raise higher, and people seek help.    A bunch of little things happen like companies try to produce natural fuel vehicles combined with high shipping prices drive up the prices of food and other things.  Families squeeze their wallets tighter and can no longer afford the $300k house that should normally be valued in the $100k range.   Those expensive houses go unsold, and because it would be too much of a financial hit to sell the house at it’s original value of $100k, houses start getting foreclosed.

Well, as more and more houses are foreclosed, these banks who gave these mortgages away like candy are forced to sell the accounts to the higher up banks.   The higher up banks are then sitting on tons of foreclosed properties until they get the squeeze by Wall Street and go belly up.

That leaves us where we are now.  A bunch of banks holding out their hands looking to get bailed out of the mess they essentially created in the first place.   Of course the American public should also be held responsible, but let’s be real.  Any parent out there knows if you give a kid an option for a candy, they’re going to take it.  Well, banks should have treated people like children because in the end it is their responsibility to give out mortgages to people they’re sure can repay the loan.

THE BAILOUT

The bailout is much easier to explain than what created the bailout.   It’s simply the government freeing up $700 billion dollars buy a lot of the bad mortgages from the banks who got themselves in this mess.   This makes Wall Street happy so a massive sell off doesn’t happen, hurting the economy even more.  It also helps those who were mislead and told Wall St wasn’t a gamble and they should invest their future there.  Of course, investors still get nervous about the fact a bailout is even needed, so that plan seems to be more of a weak bandage than anything secure.

Well today it was announced that auto companies that made tons of bad decisions may also be up for hand-outs.   All the “American” companies decided to ignore raising gas prices, and the environmental issues by gambling on the stereotype of the American cowboy sitting on a ranch, drinking a beer and watching football in the back of his pickup truck.  Fuel efficient cars just weren’t “cool” enough to invest lots of money into researching better technologies, it was all about making the biggest or toughest truck around.

Now with gas prices at the “WTF” level, those same trucks are sitting on the Ford and Chevy lots while those tough Americans are driving around in foreign made, fuel efficient cars.   So instead of letting those irresponsible auto companies also go belly up, the American tax payer gets to clean up the mess anyway, despite being the smart consumers and being automobiles from the smart companies.

If I as a tax payer gets to now own a share in Ford, i’d like to demand they start building 100 MPG cars, and build them in factories in the United States.  Stop pushing that ridiculous “tough” image, and start pushing the “smart” image.   If i’m going to own the banks, i’d like to demand they stop giving out bad mortgages, let the housing bubble burst a little, and stop being greedy and irresponsible!

Popularity: 30% [?]

The king of all negative ads, the man who made it ‘cool’ to question a candidates military record, the guy who made voters believe there was a terrorist lurking around the corner just waiting to blow you up the second you selected ‘democrat’ in the voting booth.  Yes, that man, the one, the only, Karl Rove.  The man who got one of the worst President’s in U.S. history re-elected came out and spoke about John McCain’s campaign:

“McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far,” he told Fox News, “and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the ‘100 percent truth’ test.” cnn.com

That’s right, the man who knows a thing or two about negatively charged campaigns said that McCain’s campaign has gone too far and is to the point of lying, and I completely agree.

John McCain had originally stated how he would like to run a clean campaign against either Obama or Clinton, yet for weeks now we have been blasted by nothing but negative ads, with the majority coming from the McCain campaign.  This is all while pretending he’s still some renegade maverick in the republican party, but that McCain ended a few years back.  We’ve seen nothing but another repeat of the George Bush campaigns, and from the sounds of it, if elected, it will just be Bush’s 3rd term (more to come on that later).

It pains me to say it because I really liked McCain a few years back and would have loved to see a matchup of Obama vs the honest McCain.   Hopefully McCain turns this around and starts playing clean again, but with his rise in the polls, that’s unlikely to happen.

Popularity: 19% [?]

According to John McCain, while there is tremendous turmoil in our financial markets, the fundamentals of the economy are strong!
I’m sure the fundementals of the economy look real peachy when you marry into money and have so many houses you can’t keep track of, but to the peons like myself, this is what we see..

There you have it, the worst stock tumble since the market re-opened after Sept 11th, and it doesn’t appear to be the end of it.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Well, the summer is over, travel is still down overall due to high gas prices, stocks are in the process of tumbling due to banks closing, and the war rages on.  On the bright side however, the reign of George Bush Jr is almost at it’s end, and we get to deal with another winter of politics smears, empty promises, and repetitive debates.

On one hand we have a young, inexperienced candidate with promises of change and hope running with an old white guy who represents more of the same in Washington, and then we have Obama and Biden.    Ok, so on the outside there isn’t a whole lot separating the candidates.  Both have the old white guy, and both have the young, experienced and ‘new’ type (one black, one a woman).  Both promise change, and both will pretend the other party represents ‘more of the same’.   Over the next few months as the political season rages on, i’m going to try and keep this blog updated as often as possible.

So buckle your seat belts because the election season is now underway!

Popularity: 18% [?]

In the era of pretending we’re a free and tolerant society, the overall voice seems to be clear. We can tolerate that you’re gay, or different than us, as long as you display it in the privacy of your own home.

Just recently a story broke that is no doubt “breaking news” to openly gay couples who try to act like it in public. Sirbrina Guerrero was at a Mariners game against the great Boston Red Sox (yea i’m a Sox fan, shoot me haha), when she was with her date doing ‘date’ things. Cuddling, feeding each other nachos, pecking each other on the lips and ripping each others clothes off having porno-like hardcore lesbian sex in the stands.

Ok, so I made up the last part, but you’d think based on the reaction from some people, that’s what happened. They were told to stop giving each other kisses because it’s inappropriate in public, yet if you go to a game, it probably won’t take you too long to see a straight couple cuddling and giving each other kisses.

When asked what their problem was, many of the responses seem to be the typical “how am I supposed to explain two people kissing from the same sex to my child”? Sure, logical answer because you get to play the ‘kid card’ and nobody wants to argue against the children, and nobody dares want to question the parenting behind it. Apparently it’s too difficult to just be open and honest with your children and explain to them that there are all types of people in this World and it’s not a horrible thing for them to show affection to each other. In the process, you may actually teach your child tolerance so they don’t grow up scared of anyone different than them.

So next time you’re walking down the street and you see a gay couple doing something that wouldn’t offend you if they were straight, it’s not the gay couples issue. It’s yours, and it’s something you need to deal with.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Back in the ‘olden days’, it was a time to get on your cruiser, pick up your chick and head off to the local drag race that usually ended up with some fiery crash over a cliff. Afterwards the gang would all hang out at some local burger joint with their cars running all night long and not a care in the world about burning up that oil. Ok, maybe I watch too many movies, but you get the idea.

Now, fast forward a few decades, and here we are in a situation where the best summer vacation is sitting in your house with the blinds closed hoping Iranian soldiers don’t come marching down your street siphoning your $4/gallon gas from your cars while sprinkling magical terrorist powder everywhere. Obviously the Iran situation is just more hyperbole spread by the Bush administration so we can try to get into another war before he leaves office, but sadly the gas situation is real and it is hurting the pockets of Americans.

How can we correct the situation? Is there even a solution? I mean other countries around the World have been paying higher gas prices for a while now, all while rolling their eyes at us complaining over our prices. Of course those countries don’t belong in the Middle East where their gas prices are so cheap they can fill up their tanks with change found under their seats.

And what about car companies? Where are they in this crisis? Why do they keep putting out vehicles with 25-35 mpg and act like we should sell all our property and rush right out to buy one? If they want to impress me, pump out a car with 100 mpg. I don’t need the power to be able to drive 175 mph, give me a large go-kart that reaches highway speeds and has the look / feel of a car and i’ll be happy.

Is that too much to ask? Does this post really make much sense? Am I that bored?

Popularity: 27% [?]

Barring some miracle for the Clinton campaign, it’s set to be John McCain (aka Bush v2.0) vs Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential election. That is pretty much set in stone at this point, but the Clinton campaign keeps chugging on, as they have the right to do.

Now, i’m not going to be one of those people to say Mrs. Clinton should drop out of the race, in fact in her situation she’s pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place, assuming she really cares about the democratic party winning this winter. I do think it’s historic seeing a female so close to being the nominee, and for her to quit before she’s eliminated will display a form of weakness towards her gender and her party.

Of course when a male drops out of a race before he’s officially eliminated, nobody thinks twice about it. However because Clinton is female (we think), gender seems to be taking a front seat to the more important issues this election. The war in Iraq, health care, the economy, etc. It’s pretty frustrating to anyone who cares about those issues to hear the gender issue come up almost daily, and many times from the Clinton campaign itself.

That said though, its’ pretty much a sure thing that she won’t be able to win against Obama at this point. She’s behind in almost every important category, and it would take a huge swing of the super-delegates for her to win the nominee. However, i’m not sure if she understands it or not, but most people respect the election process and for something like this to happen, it’s going to take away all the strides this 2008 election have made. We currently have a black guy going against a female for the chance to run against a 150 year old man.

If all of the sudden the leading vote getter and delegate leader were to lose because a few people decide they don’t want Obama to win, that will be a massive blow to both the democratic party and democracy in general. Then not only will Clinton lose the hardcore Obama supporters who would be furious about that, they would also lose a big chunk of those like myself who would have supported Clinton had she won fairly. Therefor, should the super-delegates sway to Clinton because of electability reasons, that would defeat the purpose and she would no longer be electable.

Mrs. Clinton needs to drag this out until June and the last election, and then gracefully drop out and fully endorse Barack Obama.  That is the only way she can both appease her base, and not screw up the democratic party enough that Bush 2.0 ends up sneaking in causing this war to last for 100 more years.

Popularity: 27% [?]

It feels good to see quality shows return to TV to balance out the massive amount of crappy reality shows they’re putting out now. Don’t get me wrong, I watch the occasional reality show here and there, but they really need to cool it. Does anyone really care about what goes on in the day to day life of some non celebrity like Kim Kardashian? I mean if they’re going to follow people around who make sex tapes, why not choose a real porn star? I’d be curious to see what a real porn star does when she isn’t getting slices of bologna thrown on her while wearing a sheep outfit.

Back to “The Office”, I got a little side-tracked which happens from time to time. If you haven’t seen it yet, the show is mostly set in an office called “Dunder Mifflin” which is a paper company in nowhere PA. The premise of the show is extremely boring which makes it that much better, and semi-realistic. It features a boss who tries really hard to be everyones friend but usually fails pretty horribly at it. Each officer worker has a unique personality which makes the show very interesting and very funny every week as there is always something new happening.

Sorry i’m not the best at describing tv shows as I try not to give too much away, or build up hype and have people let down. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before, and if you have this is just a reminder that it’s on tonight

Popularity: 29% [?]

So there is a story out today about a group of women trying to get some strip clubs shut down, and to my surprise it was in the UK and not the United States. Not to say that women in the United States are prudes, there are many who aren’t, but there seems to be groups left and right looking to shut down anything that pretends men and women are not the same gender. In fact i’m having reservations about writing a post talking about it for fear of some lashing :p

Now this story is about the increasing amount of large companies that hold meetings and entertain clients are strip clubs, and the strip clubs that seek to accommodate them. One of the largest strip clubs in the UK opened smack dab in a business district for that reason. A group called “the Fawcett Society” is not only trying to get business meetings shut down, but trying to get stricter licensing laws to help curb the amount of clubs opening up.

This is where i’m torn. On one hand I do see their point that it has to be tough on high level businesswomen who don’t exactly enjoy going to business meetings with naked women around, and they do miss out on social ‘bonding’ if they choose not to go (as none of these meetings are required). That being said though, I find it odd that they’re going after the strip clubs themselves, instead of focusing on the businesses that do this.

Even going after the businesses seems to be a weak attempt at fixing anything, as life in the corporate world will always have these kind of issues regardless of strip clubs. If this group gets anything accomplished, you’re going to see all types of groups popping up trying to fix their issues at work. I’m sure issues similar to this happen in companies everywhere. Female execs probably do things that aren’t very appealing towards male co-workers, and male execs also do things that not all men enjoy, like going to sporting events, bars, etc.

So this situation seems to be one that cannot be resolved without more tightrope walking around corporate offices, but i’m guessing it will not end until we’re all robots who show up, do our jobs, smile like Mr Brady and go home acting like everything is great with their job. Reality is this will just make co-ed work environments already more uncomfortable than they already are.

Source: cnn.com

Popularity: 31% [?]

This has to be one of the stranger stories i’ve heard in awhile. Terry Cottle was a 33 year old male from South Carolina who was married to 28ish year old Cheryl Cottle and had four children with her. Terry ended up committing suicide via a gunshot wound in 1995, possibly because he was married and had four children

Well, in comes Sonny Graham (pictured above), an old fart with a heart condition. In the same year (1995), his doctors diagnosed him with the condition and put him on the donor list hoping someone like Terry comes into the picture. Well, lady luck must have been smiling upon the old geezer, as just after Terry offed himself, his heart was prime for a transplant and got shoved in Sonny’s chest.

Now, here is where the story gets a bit weird. Thankful for the heart, Sonny decides to contact the Cottle family and ends up sharing letters with Cheryl, the grieving widow. Over a year of communication, Sonny (or better known as mr. viagra) ended up sweeping Cheryl off her feet and she ended up falling for Sonny. Some would say she loved his big heart, but that’s just a cheap joke.

Well, the story ended up taking an even weirder turn. Sonny, apparently unhappy in his life with Cheryl, her four kids, his own two kids, and six grandchildren, he decided to go the route of Terry. He placed a gun to his own neck and pulled the trigger, effectively ending his old life and leaving Cheryl (a former grieving widow of a suicide victim) as, you guessed it, a grieving widow of a suicide victim.

All joking aside, that has to be pretty hard on Cheryl. Maybe she was a nagging crazy wife, or maybe she was the perfect wife, but either way she has to now face the rest of her life as a mid 30’s widow x2, with both of her husbands sharing the same heart, and same fate. She could probably make a reality show of her going on dates just to see the reaction of guys when they hear that story.

Oh, and it’s also reported that Dr. Kevorkian is looking into buying that heart for his patients

Source: islandpacket.com

Popularity: 30% [?]