Monday, December 31, 2007

Why Iowa?

I know I need to read up and learn some more, but the question in my mind is: Why Iowa?

I find it amazing how much emphasis politicians in a presidential race place on Iowa and New Hampshire for that matter. Why? Are there not bigger states to catch? One theory passed on to me is that the people of Iowa are so dense that the politicians use them to test which lies work the best, then they can fine tune them for the other less obtuse states. Now that is somewhat cruel to say of Iowans. I never visited Iowa. I cannot judge. I still must ask, "Why Iowa?"

Well?

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Loans and Joe Blow

Everyone blames the banks for making these loans that millions are now defaulting on. I am now going to take the banks' side just to stir it up a bit.

Joe Blow goes into a bank and gets a killer loan. "Hey, I got this great ARM for my house. 1% for 3 years. Wow!"

Friend: Wow! That is awesome, dude.

Blow: Yeah.

3 Years Later

Blow: This mortgage blows, man. My payments just went through the roof! I'm paying, like, 8% now. I don't make enough to do it.

Friend: Bummer. Damn banks should not have done that to you.

Blow: Yeah. Maybe the government will help.

Friend: Yeah, dude.


OK, folks. Who signed the loan? Who knew at the time of signing that when the ARM period expired that the payment would go up? In both cases Joe Blow. The bank did nothing to hide this fact. No lender is allowed to hide this fact. Joe Blow is just plain stupid and in a way greedy. I can see the desire to own a home. I am not going to run out and buy one knowing that I would not be able to make payments! That is called common sense. Yet, Blow and family get this great loan for $100K OVER what they need for the house and spend it on things like a plasma t.v. (which will need replacement after 5 years anyways), a new SUV with all the trimmings, and a sand toy for each member of the family including Fluffy the dog (or is that a cat).

Because Blow wants all the toys, he lives outside his means. This is the American way. Inflation would not be so bad, the cost of living would be more stable, and life would be more realistic and balanced with the rest of the world if we crazy Americans would use our brains. Credit for this, credit for that. We live in debt. We do not live in reality. Everything must have a price. The lawyers make sure of that.

Get real. Life within your means. There is no need to keep up with the Jones's on your block because they will probably go bankrupt before you know it. Some people have money, some do not have as much. Live with it. Deal with it. Don't expect the government to take care of you. Only liberals think this way. Take responsibility and work for it yourself. Take care of yourself. Let the government take care of the scary folks trying to bomb the living shit out of us.

Good luck.

steroids in baseball

Football is almost over and baseball is around the bend. All we will hear is steroid use in baseball for the next 4 months. Why the big deal over baseball players using steroids? Do the fans really care or is it for those who love to keep statistics?

I think that the only people who really care are purists and stats keepers. Purists who want the game to be the same as it was in the early 1900's. Statisticians care because it screws up the trend like that really smart guy in class. All these people want is to compare today's players with those of yester-year. Times change. People change. Health change. How we live today is far different from when it was 50 or even 100 years ago and that, itself, makes for unrealistic comparisons.

Why not let these idiots use steroids? They want to kill themselves or came themselves with these drugs so let them. For the fan who wants to watch the game maybe there will be more home runs. Maybe there will be that spectacular leaping catch that some nature boy could not perform. It's entertainment. It is human nature to want to see the biggest and the best. For someone who aspires to be the biggest and the best maybe a little help is necessary. Maybe that child who just wants to have fun in little league is being pushed by his asshole father into being bigger and better. That stress alone makes these kids start to think about these things.

I say let them use steroids. Let them slowly mess with their bodies. It's worth it to me to watch some jerk crash into the outfield wall and his arm pops off because of some steroid side effect. Which leads to the next question, will there be an uproar when the first physically disabled ball player comes out and has a prothetic arm that rivals the $6 Million Man? How many asterisks after that record? Oh, the scenarios abound!