GM is hurting big time. Today their stock fell to a 53 year low. Ford aint doing so great either. In fact, just about all American companies that produce products heavily dependent on oil and gas are hurting big time. American Airlines is laying off thousands of workers and hiking prices for all checked luggage to try and offset fuel costs. Dow Chemical (which makes a gazillion products, many of which are or come from petroleum dependent processes) has already upped all of their prices acro...
We had the dot.com bubble. It burst. Then we had the real estate bubble. It too has run it's course and is painfully, slowly bursting (it's not done yet folks!) We also have the homeland security bubble, in which previously obscure and tiny companies have become giants raking in billions of your tax dollars to protect you from hordes of terr'ists (and collect data on what websites you visit and phone calls you make, all the while other government programs like food stamps get cut!) But since the...
It looks like Dr. James Dobson is at it again. He is saying that Obama has a distorted view of the bible and a 'fruitcake' view of the constitution. First off you should know this article is not defending/attacking or advocating Obama in any way. In all truth, Dobson could have said the exact same thing about McCain, or the green party candidate, or GWB and I'd be just as incensed. My problem lies not with who the target of the day may be, but with the system that has been created tha...
Here is an excellent book just released that I would urge everyone to read. Chris Hedges has been a foreign correspondent since the early 80's, covering conflicts from Latin America to the Middleast to the Balkans. His earlier book "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" was one of the pivotal works that changed much of my opinion on foreign policy and our place in the world. I would also recommend this book as well! ~From http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15033 ~ C...
Several years ago when I was in school I worked a part time job in security at a big high-rise building. It was during my time spent working there and in the general downtown area of a big city, that I observed the effects that wealth and power have on most people. Now as a disclaimer, wealth doesn't automatically turn people into jerks. I met lots of very well off folks who were the nicest people you'd ever meet. But by and large, there was a culture of superiori...
Yesterday I had a big serving of humble pie and revealed to much of the local running community just how much of a jerk I really am. Some of the businesses in town ran a mother's day cure for cancer race (entry fee plus money raised all goes to cancer research) so I figured I'd do it because I love to run, good cause and all that. I'm really not a competitive person.... I run just because I truly love it and 99% of the time I'm the nicest guy you'll meet o...
This last week, one of my good friends and co-workers had a brush with his own mortality and thankfully it looks like he's gonna be okay. From here on out though, his life is going to be drastically different. For the sake of this article, we'll say this fellow's name is Jack. First though, a disclaimer- I love junk food. I love wolfing down a greaseball double-bacon cheeseburger and fries then topping it off with some ice-cream or deep-fried cheesecake. On certain occasions when ...
A time of great change is upon us. In the last few weeks there were riots in the streets of Egypt, Somalia, Haiti, Morocco, Madagascar, Thailand and Mauritania. And this is just the beginning. Here in Canada, Filipinos are buying up rice and shipping it back home to the Philippinnes, another country that may soon see rioting. The people in these nations were not rioting over politics or ideology. They were not rioting because of religion or human rights abuses by thei...
Many folks like to harp against the evils of big government and how all it does is create a stumbling block for industrious private business with endless reams of red tape, taxes and laws. In some regards, these complaints are entirely valid. But government organizations play a crucial role in our society. They exist to ensure the protection and best interest of the public, both physically and financially. This necessity exists for a simple reason- someone's gotta be the traffic cop and ...
There is indeed no oil shortage, nor is there a food shortage. Global demand for both food and energy has been regularly outpaced by the supply but prices on both commodities have skyrocketed. Despite political rhetoric about needing to produce more oil and build more refineries domestically, that will not change the price, nor will any refineries come online anytime soon. All of those "solutions" will take years and cost a lot of money. Besides, here in Canada we're reg...
Excerpt from an article on the current state of the Union- http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/14046 “By virtually any measure, the United States is the least progressive nation in the developed world. It trails most of Western Europe in poverty rates, life expectancy, health care, child care, infant mortality, maternity leaves, paid vacations, public infrastructure, incarceration rates, and environmental laws. The wealth gap in the US has not been so wide since 1929. The Wal-Mart ...
Is the Surge really working? Although I am an unabashed liberal, I would like to ask the fine folks here to consider this article without political bias. I could care less whether a republican or democratic president was responsible for giving the order to go into Iraq. History does have a habit of repeating itself- so with that in mind I'm going to go ahead and ask if the surge is really working, considering previous occupations and how they ended... first, a little history. Back in janua...
Bush and Cheney have been chomping at the bit to go after Iran for a long time. Back in 2003, shortly after the proclamation that major combat operations had ended in Iraq, there was the widespread belief that most U.S forces would be out of the country within 6 months and available to continue the grand ol' march of freedom. One administration official pontificated that with the speedy fall of Hussein's regime in Iraq it was time to topple other undesirables in the...
Sooner or later the war in Iraq is going to end. I think everyone from all political persuasions can at least agree that at some point, the majority of U.S service personnel will leave the country and come back home. The reasons for coming home however may turn out to be far different than many folks think. When the troops come home, it will not be because of political or military victory. If those do occur it will be counted as an additional bonus and if victory hasn't be...
It's been 19 years since the Exxon Valdez struck the Bligh Reef and spilled over 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. This devastated the marine ecology in the area, killed many local fisheries industries, and caused a disruption in the foodchain that many estimate will still take decades to recover in some areas. In 1994 a federal court ordered Exxon to pay approx 5 billion in damages to 30,000 fishermen, natives and local businesses that suffered&n...