On today's list of National Edumacation Association (aka 'Gimme Moh' Munney Hunney), a plaintive story about proposed elementary school closures in Orlando, Florida.
OS ain't buying it...'cuz whenever the courts would order school closures for the sake of forced busing for 'racial balance' the NEA cheered, or at the very least stood by silently.
If you live in Louisville, Nashville, Chicago, Indy, Cincy, Cleveland, any of the once-vibrant cities with lovely neighborhoods that revolved around the local elementary school, go revisit those parts of town--if you dare.
The Left operates from a simple formula: Create chaos, and then seize power to be 'the solution' to the chaos. Tax and vilify all who disagree.
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Pop Stars
As OS writes, the Grammys are grinding on. As a former member of NARAS, OS can assure you of two certainties: They aren't worth watching, and OS isn't. He's watching a re-run from the 2011 Westminster Dog Show, where the competition was real, and votes weren't sold and traded.
Whitney Houston will this evening be idolized, feted, memorialized, lionized. The publishers who hold copyright to the songs she recorded will be especially tearfully grateful to her, as their receipts will receive a healthy boost from the repeated plays, sales and downloads. Rather like the 'Elvis Effect' in which the labels and publishers celebrated a wonderful 1977 and 1978 in the wake of The King's premature exit from This Vale Of Tears. The past few years have been tough, and earnings are, after all, earnings.
Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, Miss Houston was a compelling performer, profoundly gifted. And like Elvis and Jacko, she supervised her million-dollar talent with a ten-dollar brain.
Like Elvis and Michael she should not be so much remembered as a tragic hero/heroine as much as An Object Lesson, to borrow a phrase from an earlier age.
What's not generally understood is the raw banality of the music business. Hunter Thompson expressed it best:
As both participant and observer in DuhBiz, OS has almost lost count of the lives put through the sausage grinder: performers, composers, side musicians, engineers, on and on it goes. For Miss Houston, Elvis and Jacko, the truth of Thompson's analysis dawned much too late (or never at all). Or, they thought they were exempt, that the bad stuff would never catch up with them. That the money would always be there, that the money would solve all problems that might be encountered.
Million-dollar talents. Ten-dollar brains.
And it isn't like Miss Houston didn't have some wiser heads in her world attempting to help her out. All for nought, she knew better than they. Her death is a tragedy, but she is not a tragic figure. She is an Object Lesson.
And, tonight, the stars arrived on the red carpet, including the recipient of the next Whitney Houston Object Lesson Prize, Nicki Minaj. You must click the link to view the photo. Words fail, they simply fail... One would think that some sense of perspective may have descended upon Miss Minaj, given events of the past few days. But, then again, we're dealing with ten-dollar brains.
Back to the Dog Show. The contestants there are smarter.
Whitney Houston will this evening be idolized, feted, memorialized, lionized. The publishers who hold copyright to the songs she recorded will be especially tearfully grateful to her, as their receipts will receive a healthy boost from the repeated plays, sales and downloads. Rather like the 'Elvis Effect' in which the labels and publishers celebrated a wonderful 1977 and 1978 in the wake of The King's premature exit from This Vale Of Tears. The past few years have been tough, and earnings are, after all, earnings.
Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, Miss Houston was a compelling performer, profoundly gifted. And like Elvis and Jacko, she supervised her million-dollar talent with a ten-dollar brain.
Like Elvis and Michael she should not be so much remembered as a tragic hero/heroine as much as An Object Lesson, to borrow a phrase from an earlier age.
What's not generally understood is the raw banality of the music business. Hunter Thompson expressed it best:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
As both participant and observer in DuhBiz, OS has almost lost count of the lives put through the sausage grinder: performers, composers, side musicians, engineers, on and on it goes. For Miss Houston, Elvis and Jacko, the truth of Thompson's analysis dawned much too late (or never at all). Or, they thought they were exempt, that the bad stuff would never catch up with them. That the money would always be there, that the money would solve all problems that might be encountered.
Million-dollar talents. Ten-dollar brains.
And it isn't like Miss Houston didn't have some wiser heads in her world attempting to help her out. All for nought, she knew better than they. Her death is a tragedy, but she is not a tragic figure. She is an Object Lesson.
And, tonight, the stars arrived on the red carpet, including the recipient of the next Whitney Houston Object Lesson Prize, Nicki Minaj. You must click the link to view the photo. Words fail, they simply fail... One would think that some sense of perspective may have descended upon Miss Minaj, given events of the past few days. But, then again, we're dealing with ten-dollar brains.
Back to the Dog Show. The contestants there are smarter.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Nahh! Illegal Immigration Is Really A Benign Phenomenon! What's That? Someone Stole The School's TUBA?
Really...it's happening in Southern California.
In the last few months, dozens of brass sousaphones — smaller tubas used in marching bands — were taken from schools in Southern California.
Though the police have not made any arrests, music teachers say the thefts are motivated by the growing popularity of banda, a traditional Mexican music form in which tubas play a dominant role.
Teachers point to the targeted pattern of the burglaries: the expensive brass tubas and sousaphones, which cost $2,000 to $7,000, are pilfered, while electronics, cheaper fiberglass tubas and other brass instruments are usually left behind.
“Frankly, I don’t think somebody would go through all that trouble just to take some brass to go to the salvage lot,” said Ligia Chaves-Rasas, the music teacher at Bell High School. “Banda is very popular in this area of Southern California, and people will pay top dollar for a banda with a sousaphone player. Now, I have kids coming up to me saying they want to learn the tuba so they can be in a banda.”
Culture shaping economy...
Are we ready to make some different choices yet?
The Mortgage 'Deal', and OS Once Again Asks: Where Is The Giuliani Of Our Generation?
The news was breathlessly reported in the media, and glowingly announced by Eric Holder:
A multistate settlement with five large U.S. banks over foreclosure practices would include as much as $17 billion in mortgage debt forgiveness and loan modifications and take three years to complete, according to a letter describing the deal.
The draft letter to stakeholders from state attorneys general outlines an agreement among large mortgage servicers, states and the Department of Justice, which are continuing talks to finalize the proposal.
Servicers, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and Wells Fargo & Co., would also have to provide as much as $3 billion in refinancings, enabling borrowers to secure new loans “at today’s historically low rates,” according to the letter.
Another $1.5 billion would be to about 750,000 borrowers who have lost their homes to foreclosure, according to the letter.
States that sign on to the agreement would get “immediate payments” to fund consumer protection and foreclosure prevention efforts.
Lissen' up, ya'll. These banksters perpetrated the greatest swindle in the history of the world! They sold shit mortgages on shit houses to people who had no chance of honoring the terms, thus crippling their futures. In the meantime, they bundled and sold these shit mortgages as securities. Most of them were never recorded in the county courthouses of the land, which is what the law requires.
Then, when the shit mortgages stopped producing, they filed fraudulent, perjured foreclosure documents and kicked the purchasers they had defrauded out of their houses. They used robo-signers to sign the affadavits, often fictitious names, or names of dead people, which is perjury and fraud upon the court. The chain of title has been broken on thousands upon thousands of properties, which will serve to make them unsaleable, or so risky as to gut their market value.
A breathtaking fraud has been perpetrated upon us, and our political leadership are holding the banksters' coats while they stone the culture to death. This makes the corruption of the 1870's look like Amateur Hour, Teapot Dome look like small peanuts, Watergate look like a bad prank.
And now, courtesy of Barry and Eric, they get to sign a civil settlement for pennies on the dollars of wealth they vacuumed away from each and every one of us. And we're supposed to stand up and cheer!
They only have to fork up 4.5 billion in cash, some of it to buy off the state governments, and promise to 'help' by reducing some loan principals--if and when they get around to it. When they fail to honor the agreement, there will be zero enforcement.
Back in the late 1980's, an earlier generation of banksters and politicians collapsed the venerable Savings and Loan industry, which had for decades provided stability in the home sales market by demanding prudence from all parties. At least one of those crooks, Charles Keating, actually was convicted and served four years in the pokey for ruining thousands of lives. The senators he bought off, including John McCain, were named and shamed.
In our day, the politicians make little effort to hide their ennabling of massive fraud.
It is a culture that has decided that only power matters, and slowly and surely it is grinding...to...a....(halt).
OS sees little to no hope in the Presidential race. He thinks our best bet in that arena is to elect fire-breathing honest conservatives at every level from city council to Congress, and keep after them to hold the crooks' collective feet to the fire.
OS also thinks that anyone who is foolish enough to do business with the banks mentioned above deserves the fleecing that awaits.
A multistate settlement with five large U.S. banks over foreclosure practices would include as much as $17 billion in mortgage debt forgiveness and loan modifications and take three years to complete, according to a letter describing the deal.
The draft letter to stakeholders from state attorneys general outlines an agreement among large mortgage servicers, states and the Department of Justice, which are continuing talks to finalize the proposal.
Servicers, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and Wells Fargo & Co., would also have to provide as much as $3 billion in refinancings, enabling borrowers to secure new loans “at today’s historically low rates,” according to the letter.
Another $1.5 billion would be to about 750,000 borrowers who have lost their homes to foreclosure, according to the letter.
States that sign on to the agreement would get “immediate payments” to fund consumer protection and foreclosure prevention efforts.
Lissen' up, ya'll. These banksters perpetrated the greatest swindle in the history of the world! They sold shit mortgages on shit houses to people who had no chance of honoring the terms, thus crippling their futures. In the meantime, they bundled and sold these shit mortgages as securities. Most of them were never recorded in the county courthouses of the land, which is what the law requires.
Then, when the shit mortgages stopped producing, they filed fraudulent, perjured foreclosure documents and kicked the purchasers they had defrauded out of their houses. They used robo-signers to sign the affadavits, often fictitious names, or names of dead people, which is perjury and fraud upon the court. The chain of title has been broken on thousands upon thousands of properties, which will serve to make them unsaleable, or so risky as to gut their market value.
A breathtaking fraud has been perpetrated upon us, and our political leadership are holding the banksters' coats while they stone the culture to death. This makes the corruption of the 1870's look like Amateur Hour, Teapot Dome look like small peanuts, Watergate look like a bad prank.
And now, courtesy of Barry and Eric, they get to sign a civil settlement for pennies on the dollars of wealth they vacuumed away from each and every one of us. And we're supposed to stand up and cheer!
They only have to fork up 4.5 billion in cash, some of it to buy off the state governments, and promise to 'help' by reducing some loan principals--if and when they get around to it. When they fail to honor the agreement, there will be zero enforcement.
Back in the late 1980's, an earlier generation of banksters and politicians collapsed the venerable Savings and Loan industry, which had for decades provided stability in the home sales market by demanding prudence from all parties. At least one of those crooks, Charles Keating, actually was convicted and served four years in the pokey for ruining thousands of lives. The senators he bought off, including John McCain, were named and shamed.
In our day, the politicians make little effort to hide their ennabling of massive fraud.
It is a culture that has decided that only power matters, and slowly and surely it is grinding...to...a....(halt).
OS sees little to no hope in the Presidential race. He thinks our best bet in that arena is to elect fire-breathing honest conservatives at every level from city council to Congress, and keep after them to hold the crooks' collective feet to the fire.
OS also thinks that anyone who is foolish enough to do business with the banks mentioned above deserves the fleecing that awaits.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Let Us Meditate On The Great First Ladies Of Our Nation, And Wonder If They Would Have Staged A Potato-Sack Race In The White House
Mrs. Washington, who had to watch her husband called into service time and again.
Mrs. Adams, who managed the farm while John labored in Philadelphia with Franklin and Jefferson, creating a Declaration of Independence.
Dolly Madison, who saved what she could of the White House furnishings as the British approached.
Mrs. Lincoln, who made Mr. Lincoln's life a living hell at home as he led the Union through a civil war, and was seated beside him as he was assassinated in Ford's Theater.
Mrs. Wilson, who ran the country in Woodrow's name, after he suffered numerous strokes.
Mrs. Truman, who kept Harry's temper in check as best she could.
Mamie Eisenhower, who graced the White House with such class.
And then there was Jackie. 'Nuff said.
And Lady Bird, who wanted some landscaping on the interstates, at least.
Nancy Reagan, the love of Ronnie's life.
Those are just a few examples.
But we live in a new age now, in which the First Lady stages a flour-sack race with a talk-show host, inside the White House.
What were they thinking? Did it occur this may really be embarrassing and inappropriate? Barry, Michelle and the whole crew demand they be respected because they hold high office, and then turn around and pull stunts like this. It is a bit tougher to stare down monsters like Assad if the LittleWoman is getting these sorts of headlines.
The issue isn't politics left or right--it's the dignity of the office and of the White House itself. Credibility is easy to squander, tough to regain.
Mrs. Adams, who managed the farm while John labored in Philadelphia with Franklin and Jefferson, creating a Declaration of Independence.
Dolly Madison, who saved what she could of the White House furnishings as the British approached.
Mrs. Lincoln, who made Mr. Lincoln's life a living hell at home as he led the Union through a civil war, and was seated beside him as he was assassinated in Ford's Theater.
Mrs. Wilson, who ran the country in Woodrow's name, after he suffered numerous strokes.
Mrs. Truman, who kept Harry's temper in check as best she could.
Mamie Eisenhower, who graced the White House with such class.
And then there was Jackie. 'Nuff said.
And Lady Bird, who wanted some landscaping on the interstates, at least.
Nancy Reagan, the love of Ronnie's life.
Those are just a few examples.
But we live in a new age now, in which the First Lady stages a flour-sack race with a talk-show host, inside the White House.
What were they thinking? Did it occur this may really be embarrassing and inappropriate? Barry, Michelle and the whole crew demand they be respected because they hold high office, and then turn around and pull stunts like this. It is a bit tougher to stare down monsters like Assad if the LittleWoman is getting these sorts of headlines.
The issue isn't politics left or right--it's the dignity of the office and of the White House itself. Credibility is easy to squander, tough to regain.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Where, Pray Tell, Are The Handcuffs? MF Global Trustee Report
It's an ugly, ugly tale, and OS hopes you take a moment to read it.
OS's premise, and soapbox, is that culture shapes economy. If we live in a culture where firms like MF Global can act with reckless abandon, drive over the cliff, carrying their customers and their customer's customers with them--because the board and management know they have a perpetual 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card from those in charge of the government--then inevitably all trust erodes, and sooner or later things grind....to.......a.......(halt).
Where are the handcuffs? Where's the Giuliani of our generation, who as prosecutor would have perp-walked the whole crew into court long ago?
OS's premise, and soapbox, is that culture shapes economy. If we live in a culture where firms like MF Global can act with reckless abandon, drive over the cliff, carrying their customers and their customer's customers with them--because the board and management know they have a perpetual 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card from those in charge of the government--then inevitably all trust erodes, and sooner or later things grind....to.......a.......(halt).
Where are the handcuffs? Where's the Giuliani of our generation, who as prosecutor would have perp-walked the whole crew into court long ago?
Monday, February 6, 2012
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...
Sunday, February 5, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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