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| Like a lot of people, I was glad to see the bailout go down in flames in its current incarnation. Especially not since the Federal Reserve has already pumped 630 billion into the mix. (yes, that would make it nearly 2 trillion dollars we'd be out if the Fed goes belly up.)
Want to offer a bailout? Yes, but do it in such punitive terms that any company which can possibly fix their problems privately will do so. And then get the protections created after the Great Depression which served us for so long BACK IN PLACE. Revising the horribly punitive bankruptcy law that got passed recently would be good too.
There's a reason people are mad at banks and anything that looks like banks and it's called USURY.
If it were me, these would be the terms.
Any company which accepts money for a bailout (in this crisis or any other) has its stock frozen. The employee pay scale immediately goes to the GS-scale *starting from the bottom* and no bonuses will be given. The government will receive 100 percent of the dividends that would normally go to employees or board of directors, 50 percent of the dividends that would go to company retirees, and 30 percent of dividends that would go to other investors. This continues until the company has paid back the bailout plus 2 percent simple interest. At that point the dividends begin to flow again in the usual way. Leaving the company, either because of taking a new job or being fired *for cause* (not being laid off) means forfeiting all stock. If the company goes bankrupt, the government is the first debtor, the pensioners (if any) second.
For individuals/households, also a bailout on mortgages, also punitive. A straight payoff, and the bank collects no interest for future years or penalties for early payoff either. It goes down as bad credit to the individual though, and the individual/household must pay one third of net income plus 2 percent simple interest until the debt is paid off. (But as renters, so HUD pays the property taxes.) The individual/household must occupy the property until the debt is gone. Leaving means forfeiting the house. (which can then be homesteaded by individuals/households who own NO OTHER REAL ESTATE for seven years to gain ownership.
Have fun debating!
ETA: of course it isn't till I cut and paste it here I realize I screwed up the second sentence... *headdesk* | |
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| If the Federal Reserve just poured 630 billion into the economy, why the heck do we need a bailout? | |
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| This looks like it might be useful. Especially since you can use solar power. Nice thing to have to keep your cellphone going if the power goes out for a week, hey? | |
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| http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/senate-passes-b.htmlThe article is about a senate passed bill creating a cabinet level "copyright" czar. (Does the word czar make your skin crawl too?) The RIAA and MPAA are all for it, but the more that corporations insist that any use of "their stuff" is illegal, the more I begin to wonder when the paint companies are going to start claiming that they own the paintings that artists do. There's a reason Fair Use is basic to American law... | |
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| Ever wonder why the BBC blew "Gaudy Night" so badly? Well, now we know. | |
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| Have you read this thing? What's with section 8? No review? One guy, picked by Bush, gets to dole out a ton of money and he's not accountable to nobody? 2000 bucks a piece for every man woman and child in the country? And section 9? Everything expires except the important parts? You want to bail out mortgages, okay. Guarantee every flipping mortgage in the country held by owner-occupied housing. Save the little guys. For rental units, save the small holders who rent at reasonable rates. *then* if there's money left over, give some to the banks that screwed up in the first place. And absolutely every company who gets bailed should have its stock frozen and no bonuses for any employee until the debt is paid back. If you save smallholders, they should have to pay back the mortgages at one third of their income at a low interest rate till its paid off. And it goes down as bad credit, so they can't borrow more. I'm all for responsibility. But this thing, this is a piece of malarky: LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS ( why yes, I did write my senators, why do you ask? ) Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.
The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.( Read more... ) | |
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| At the last moment he hesitated, in spite of having warmed himself for months with the thought of Watson's astonishment. But there was neither sense nor logic in having hauled the battered tin box halfway 'round the world just to hide it away beneath the bed, or turn it over to the untender mercies of a pawnbroker.
For what would no doubt be the last time he ran a sensitive hand across the painted name, and wished that he had found the papers it had once held. There was nothing left inside but memories. Pray God they were good ones. | |
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| There's a tin dispatch box... like the one Watson mentions... down near the bottom of this page. http://www.eastbourneauction.com/Catalogue/linkweb/A130505/page5.htmLot 511: Painted Victorian tin dispatch box by Allybhoy Vullijee & Sons - Mooltan with fitted interior, 49cm long £20.00 -30.00 Not to mention all the other neat Victorian toys. Gah! Edit: Okay, I want the tin box, and the sword stick, and the violin with the label that says Stradiuari and... I'm not even in the right country! Aaaaaggghhh! | |
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| Does anyone who really likes figuring out LJ layouts know how to add a tag cloud and a list of links to something as basic as my current layout? I don't want fancy, I just want to be able to click quick and find things.
Alternately, does anyone know a layout that's really really readable which does have tags and links?
Or even where I should be asking the question? | |
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| Wake up. Tooth hurts. A different hurt now, but still hurts. In fact, whole side of face is sending messages of "what the blue blazes did you do to me and do I really have to move?" at brain.
Face dilemma:
If you don't eat, taking the vicodin will make you feel sick. This was proven conclusively last night when you took the pain med with just milk as a cushion.
If you do eat, the tooth will hurt much much worse while you're eating and the vicodin will still make you feel sick, but at least you'll have something in your stomach if you reach the point of heaving... and the tooth might not hurt as much for a while.
You know if your blood sugar hits basement you're asking for a headache, so not eating is not really an option.
Not taking the pain pill has a momentary attraction, and then you yawn and your cheekbone tries to secede.
*sighs*
*eats*
*takes stupid pill*
And people get addicted to this stuff?! | |
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| I have no brain cells.
I have no ambition.
I have no energy.
I have neighbors who are having a lovely barbecue fifteen feet from my window, and they are actually NOT playing loud music, although they are having a conversation I could understand if it were in English. But I have lots of pillows. I could bury myself.
So why am I awake?
I have a dentist appointment in the morning.
feh. | |
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| Almost everything I want to say about this is said much better here. But I'll add this much. If government regulations protect "conscience" to the degree that a person can't be "discriminated" against for failing to do their jobs, it will impose a hell of a burden on the rest of us, who'll have to pay to get more employees hired who'll take up the slack. There is a real drive to make birth control -- not just abortion, but any kind of birth control -- illegal in this country. It's governed by an "all or nothing" logic which purports to be about children, but is really about denying the notion that a fully grown woman has a better right to exist than a zygote. It also purports to be about "God's Will" without allowing that the omniscient and omnipotent deity being called upon certainly must have the means and the power to assure that any child who should be born, will be born. If you don't want to live in a place where a rapist's sperm is valued over your health and happiness, go and comment. | |
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| Yesterday evening, about half an hour before the library was due to close, I looked up from my computer and saw a familiar face.
The young lady in question still has the incredible smile, and the bright eyes I remember from my old library, and her middle school and high school days. She greeted me, and said she'd made a special trip to say hello, knowing that I'd moved branches. And then she floored me by telling me that she's now a board certified nurse.
Wow!
I'll admit, I was fighting to remember her name. She was never one of the children I had to hush or chide for foolishness on a daily basis. She was one of my homework crew -- the kids who came in with their backpacks and stacks of books and sneaked snacks while they plowed through the mountain. She'd gotten into one of Boston's best schools, and I can remember her and her friends comparing their homework loads. She had dissections in biology, her friends had hand-out sheets. We talked about that, and my memory of how very angry it had made me to realize that some of "my" kids were being cheated of the education they deserved.
She told me about the old neighborhood, and I finally admitted to not remembering her name, and we chatted a while longer before I got my hug and sent her off to work. My night -- my week! -- and probably my next three months are all going to glow now.
Thank you, Sasha! I am so proud of you! | |
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| It is Monday after all.
Let me just say that while I don't think the Dove dark chocolate is quite as good as some of the other kinds (too much sugar), I do very much like the "three wrapped bars" inside the cardboard shell. Four squares of dark chocolate are a lovely luxury, where twelve can be a bit much. | |
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| The tooth is better -- if anyone's in Denver I can recommend a dentist -- and in Denver or not, if you ever get a filling that feels too big after the novocaine wears off, go back to the dentist and holler right away.
Of course now I'm trying to cram the rest of my vacation into a few days. Oy! | |
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| and my house isn't clean! I succumbed to temptation and bought a laptop with wireless instead.
now I just have to figure it out... | |
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| Two more fillings this morning, and my face *still* hurts tonight.
And I can't find the world's smallest violin for my pity party, either. | |
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| He only really feels alive when he is taking chances. Risking his fortune is respectable, so he plays the horses, and plays billiards, and misses the days when he could still defy the odds over a surgical table. But a revolver requires little finesse and only one good arm. A chase through a moonlit night here, a desperate search for clues there, even a battle or two: propriety doesn't frown on foolish heroics, thank heaven. He outwaits the tedious hours of Holmes' drugged lassitude by imagining adventures, and knows his house is glass. Holmes has cocaine, but Watson has Holmes. ( that's the revised version, the original is under the cut. ) | |
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