As You Read This Tale of Woe, Remember Who Has Run San Francisco, And California,For Decades

This was the set of hoops one woman had to traverse,  just to open an ICE CREAM PARLOR in San Francisco!!

The Ice Cream Bar opened Jan. 21 in the Cole Valley neighborhood — an homage to the classic parlors of the 1930s, complete with vintage soda fountain and lunch counter seating. It has become an immediate sensation, packed with both families and the foodie crowd, savoring upscale house-made ice creams and exotic sodas (flavorings include pink peppercorn and tobacco). The shop also employs 14 full- and part-time workers. 

But getting it opened wasn’t easy. 

“Many times it almost didn’t happen,” said Juliet Pries, the owner, with a cheerful laugh.

Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the restaurant, due largely to the city’s morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open. 

Lissen' up, ya'll! When Miz Nancy, Missah Harry, Missah Obama and allll they furry friends (like Missah Lee, Mayor of San Francisco) yammer on about creatin' jobs--they lying to yew! They wants yoh munney, hunney, to spend on themselves and their friends. If you still make a profit after all that, you become one of 'The Rich', an object of resentment, an example of greed, from whom more money must be extracted.

Ms. Pries said she had to endure months of runaround and pay a lawyer to determine whether her location (a former grocery, vacant for years) was eligible to become a restaurant. There were permit fees of $20,000; a demand that she create a detailed map of all existing area businesses (the city didn’t have one); and an $11,000 charge just to turn on the water. 

11 large to turn on the water? Before one scoop of ice cream can be sold? And she wants to go into business because? And Californians wonder why business is fleeing the state?

Ya'll don't need to take OldSouth's word fer it...this is straight from the Yew Nork Timez! Why their editorial staff continues to cheer-lead for the obviously incompetent and corrupt politicians that spend their waking hours destroying the culture and economy is anyone's guess. 

It makes no sense from here, unless perhaps, these guyz is really the OnePercent, and the rest of us are left to make our way through the cultural and economic hall of mirrors that America has become.

Jes' thinkin' out loud...

Biderman Explains The BLS Job Numbers...

HT Jesse

OS thought he heard a Dixieland band romping away on 'Happy Days Are Here Again' when the BLS numbers were released. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs created! We're on the way back! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Obama!

It didn't feel right, but OS couldn't articulate exactly why.

Charles Biderman can. A most informative four minutes.

The Security Council Veto By Russia And China: US Delegate Expresses Her 'Disgust'...

...(breaking into the local patois) but did ya'll notice that she didn't say she wuz serpriiiized?

Let's go over this agin, realll slow, so even dem folk at the Yew Nork Times kin understand it:


If'n we're beholden to China from here to Sunday, 'cuz they totin' our note, and buildin' our phones, auto parts, and everthin' else,  and hold a bunch of the world's gold, etc. etc. etc., then we have exactly no say about what may happen about lotsa' stuff, overseas or heah. In case yew haven't noticed, the folk what run RedChina are murderers and thieves, happily running great portions of their country as a slave labor camp. And jes' you try to open yerselves up a Baptist Church down the street....wheweee dey put yore lily-white in jail fer that.  These thugs be in the driver's seat, we be in the back of the bus, ya'll.


If'n Russia is the main natchural gas provider to Western Europe, then them Russkies can do whatever they damn well please, include ship freighters full of armaments to that murderer Assad, soze he can murder his citizen'ry more efficiently. Which is exactly what he be doin'--dem folks dyin' like flies, and tain'nt nuthin' Western Europe can do 'bout it, unless they love living in the dark and the cold.

So, folks in Syria whut don't want to live under that murderer Assad are being shot down wholesale in the streets--no Arab Spring nonsense heah', ya'll. Assad did notice how pitiful things ended for Gadafi, and don't intend to join him anytime soon. And he knows the Russkies and RedChinese have got his back, providing diplomatic cover and an endless supply of toys to kill folks whut displease him.

And, in more standard English...

Here in the States, we've been living like drunken sailors since the mid-1960's, running a welfare state here, and running wars in far-flung places so we can establish welfare states there, too. We won't drill our own oil, dig our own coal, make our own steel/cars/clothes/tv's/washing machines. And we've been charging it to our credit card, held by folks like the Chinese and the Saudis. As for the Russians, they're running their house like a criminal racket, and we've been more interested in cashing in than checking to make sure our pockets haven't been picked.

This cannot end well, and things have no hope of getting better unless we change our behavior.

David Brooks' Grasp Of Our Problems, And Boneheaded Quasi-Mussolini Proposed Solution

The Yew Nork Times features David Brooks as one of its columnists. Guess it gives the editorial staff a warm feeling to think they've even made a place on their pages for a Bushy neo-con.

A great essay, until the last paragraph, in which one understands why OS cannot abide neo-conservatives.

If Romney is elected, clowns like Brooks are back in the driver's seat.  Heaven help us.

Meanwhile, Back In The South Atlantic

The UK is dispatching one of the world's most sophisticated air-defense frigates, just to dissuade the Argentinians from attempting new mischief against the Falkland Islands.

For this, David Cameron has Barry and Hillary to thank, as they have actively encouraged Argentina (along with Chavez, who is cheering them along) to saber-rattle.

The world has enough woes without this. And the world is safer with the sea-lanes of the South Atlantic protected by HM Navy at harbor in the Falklands than, say, any of Chavez's friends.

One would think that this simple sort of stuff would seem obvious to Barry, as brilliant as he claims to be.
Perhaps it does. Perhaps he desires more chaos in the Southern Hemisphere...perhaps his hatred of all things British trumps sober judgment.

Or, perhaps, he is simply that careless and thoughtless. Ya takes yer' choice, in the end.

$52,409 For Every Man, Woman And Child In The US: Rick Santelli Does The Math

But, hey! Who's counting?

Ricky Ricardo Reports On The Latest News From MF Global

LOOOOCY! Dih' Munney! It vaporized itself!

Ai Caramaba, Looocy!  Wha' happun?!?!

Or in more staid English, the opening paragraph of the Wall Street Journal coverage this morning:


Nearly three months after MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed, officials hunting for an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money increasingly believe that much of it might never be recovered, according to people familiar with the investigation.

As the sprawling probe that includes regulators, criminal and congressional investigators, and court-appointed trustees grinds on, the findings so far suggest that a "significant amount" of the money could have "vaporized" as a result of chaotic trading at MF Global during the week before the company's Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, said a person close to the investigation.

Many officials now believe certain employees ...
 

At this point, the WSJ invites one to subscribe in order to read it all. But really, why bother?

It's just as informative, and much more entertaining, to bring Desi Arnaz back from the grave and let him do his Ricky routine, in which the more frustrated he became, the more his English deteriorated.

In a society ruled by law, Jon Corzine would have already been placed under arrest, publicly arraigned,  forced to cough up his passport, and detained to one of his Manhattan addresses, always within reach of the prosecutors. He'd be allowed access to enough money to live and pay his lawyers, but otherwise no-touchy-the-assets in all those far-flung places, as the account holders who were robbed of their funds may have need of them in recovery. Ditto for the entire top two tiers of management of the firm. Ain't nobody goin' nowhere 'til we sort this mess out, know-whudd-I-mean?

He'd also not go unchallenged when he tells the world, 'Gollee-Gee, Beaver! I don't have any idea where all that money vaporized to!'

Every so often, OS flips through channels on the way to basketball games, and sees snippets of documentaries on street gangs. They are scary people, covered in tattoos, wielding guns, loyal only to their own tribe, completely disinterested in the fortunes and lives destroyed around them. Fearless. Ruthless. Nihilistic. Many have bought off or scared off any semblance of law enforcement. They rule the street, and aren't shy about letting the world know.

Please inform OS, someone, how these people differ from the upper tiers of our political and banking worlds? Except, perhaps, for the tattoos?

I asked Ricky. He just shrugged his shoulders and slunk back to the 1950's, grateful to be gone, and told me not to call him again. He's got his bridge game scheduled with Fred and Ethel, and doesn't wish to be disturbed.

27 January 2012 OS Reflects On His Month

There hasn't been much time or energy to write during this first month of 2012, due to schedule and a nasty nasty nasty respiratory bug that traveled home with Mr and Mrs OS from their vacation in England.  Yes, flu shots were administered last fall, and it didn't seem to make a bit of difference this year.

Still, some wonderful moments occurred, such as a trip to Louisville to hear the Royal Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman on the podium, and performing the Bruch violin concerto as well. Brahms 4 occupied the second half, featuring flawless string playing, and inspiring work from the principal flautist. A piece like this is the musical version of wire-walking in one's BVD's--if it goes well, no one notices, but if things go slightly pear-shaped it's immediately evident. The highlight of the evening was Zukerman's 'pep talk' to the audience after the main concert, followed by an inspired performance of Elgar's Nimrod. He reminded the audience of his first visit to their fair city in 1969, and urged them to get their orchestra underway again. The packed house cheered for him as he spoke.

It may take a long time, given the bitterness in the air. This bit of labor rant, complete with every device of class envy the author could muster was published in response to this perhaps ill-time and advised public pronouncement by one of the Louisville Orchestra's board members. Turns out that the orchestra members had been claiming unemployment benefits, on the basis they had been locked out. The State of Kentucky had recently ruled that, in reality, the musicians are on strike. Not only are they not eligible to collect, they owe the money they collected back!  Not a happy situation, to say the least.

The turnout at Royal Phil was impressive--every seat filled. There is an audience for this music, but not for a snake-bit situation as exists locally. The solution may be to have other orchestras play in Louisville while on tour for the next 3-5 years, put the LO on ice, let tempers cool and reason have a chance to reassert itself. 

It was also a month that included one of those frustrating 'customer representative' experiences with OS's wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless. They sold him a phone that didn't work, after assuring him all was well. It cost many hours to straighten out the snafu. The worst experience was with Danny, who didn't see the logic in making an adjustment in the bill that might begin to faintly recognize the chaos created. Danny, and presumably Verizon, are perfectly happy to let thousands of dollars a year from a long-standing customer walk out the door, while informing his friends and family of the shabby treatment.

OK, Danny. You win. Verizon must not need customers, so OS is happy to recommend his readers shop elsewhere, as he plans to do as well. The money for your salary, package and pension will miraculously materialize from somewhere as the customers snap the checkbook shut, so don't-chew-worry-yohself-one-bit. You're Danny, from Verizon. Nothing bad could happen to you.

Finally, the election fever is upon us. Never have words seemed to mean less, or the stakes been higher, or the world situation more fragile. So, that's why we follow Newt's ex-wife breathlessly, and pore over Mitt's tax return (500 ***** pages? That's a tax code we can live with?), debating whether he pays enough taxes. How's about instead we allllll learn how to build substantial worth by honest means?

Herman Cain seems like a footnote now, but OS rues his absence. There is something about the man that frightens people like Obama, Mitt, Newt, McCain, Biden. His approach is simple, he's basically come back from death's door in recovering from cancer, and he knows how to relate to people.

But life is looking up--baseball spring training begins soon, and the NCAA tournament and The Masters aren't far behind.  Today's round in Abu Dhabi with Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods in the same threesome brought joy to the heart, as did Louisville's wins at Pittsburgh and at home. 

Still in recovery mode. Till next time.

OS

We Were The Obama Generation

If anything deserves to go viral, this is it. These kids don't talk about social issues, or race, or birth certificates, or the Middle East, or Solyndra, or Fast-and-Furious, or GM, or...

They just talk about the math they face, left them by Obama.

Publish Post

B'Bye, Timmy! Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out

The critters begin to depart the ship as it begins its really serious list...

He'd be gone before now, except that Himself would not be able to get anyone willing to endure the confirmation process in order to serve until next January, and not even Obama thinks he'd get away with some bogus 'Recess Appointment' nonsense. The markets (especially the US bond market) would hit the 'risk off' button and hold it down the day after he tried that.

Next up? Lessee, who is most likely to be a subject of discussion in the fall campaign?

Oh, Mr. Holder, let's talk about that Fast and Furious operation, why don't we? Or...maybe not...