Back to the Stone Age

The GOP have continually promoted the idea of an impenetrable missile shield designed to protect the Continental USA and some of our overseas possession from attack by IBCMs. Ronald Reagan promoted the Strategic Defense Initiative or (SDI) as Star Wars defense in hopes of bankrupting the USSR through their efforts to come up with a missile capable of piercing this barrier. GW Bush almost pursued this strategy and the Pentagon crowed each time that they tested an interceptor missile against an incoming target.

Billions of dollars were spent on the Aegis program without any positive results.

Except in the mind of GW Bush, however it's nice to know that other nations' weapons systems are also capable of malfunctions as demonstrated by this video of a French anti-tank missile.

Please go to the following URL to witness this fiasco.

For a related article click on this URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopsCNAl98w

Go you frogs.

MONEY MONEY by the Kingsmen / Song of the Day

In 1964 the Kingsmen followed up LOUIE LOUIE with the 45 MONEY MONEY with BENT SPECTER on the B-Side. It was originally a hit for Barrett Strong in 1956 and their cover reached #16 on the Billboard charts.

The lyrics of the song say it best for times like this, because we all need money and we need it now.

"The best thing in life is free
But you can give it to the birds an' bees
I need some money, Need some money. Oh yeah, what I want"

I love this song so much I use it for my ringtone.

I'm old.

If you want to feel old too, go to this URL for a great video of the Kingsmen on the TV show Hollywood A Go-Go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpNgLU2Lgfw


LOLITA the movie came out in 1962 and has nothing to do with MONEY MONEY, but I like the picture.

150 Years to Life

A New York City judge is on the verge of sentencing convicted swindler Bernie Madoff to prison. The maximum penalty is 150 years. A life sentence for a man in his 70s. Many of his victims feel this punishment as unsatisfactory. Most would pay for him to be abducted into a CIA rendition program, if they had not been impoverished by the man they called 'god'.

Mammon is more like it.

"Here's to Bernie Madoff." I toasted him the other night at L'Esquina with several banker friends.

"He's a dirt bag." Bobbie was pissed with anger. His bonus this year was down a digit from 2007.

"You're just jealous."

"They should hang him by his balls." Jumbo dealt with pensions. Several of them were off value 60%. His bonus was his job.

"What they should do is make him have a hangover every day."

"Too good for him." Errol was between jobs. Six months already.

"You guys are too mean." I ordered us another round of marghartias.

On them.

At least I'm getting some of the wealth of America.

Song of the day - AMERICA / Razorlight

I went to see Razorlight at Hiro thanks to my roommate Vladmar, he books the bands at that venue.

"They're an English band."

"Like Oasis?" I hate all pop bands except for the ones I like.

"Just come and seen them."

"What time they go on?" My bed hour is early now that I'm 103.

"9:30."

"I can make that."

And I was glad that I did.

To hear AMERICA - Razorlight

For a related article click on this URL

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=razorlight&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=rY65Sc6fFYqcMvu9kJgI&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#



"

Quote of the Day

H.H. the Dalai Lama:

The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.

Happiest State in America

People don't wear happy faces in New York City these days. Everything seems to be fucked big time; the stock market, sales, housing ad nauseum. I'm threatened with a job loss. No more Pierre of the Plaza, but I still feel upbeat. I blame this good feeling on wine.

When times are bad, drink wine. When times are good, drink wine.

This strategy is not a determinant of the recent happiness poll conducted by Gallup with Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans, which might be why a 'dry' state such as Utah came in happiest of the 50 States in the USA with Hawaii taking the #2 spot.

New York was #35.

Guess that explains the glum faces on the subway.

Bottom rank went to West Virginia and the majority of the other bummed out states were those which voted for John McCain in 2008.

To find out how your state fared go to this URL

For a related article click on this URL

http://www.ahiphiwire.org/WellBeing


My state is well-being, but then I follow the tenets of the Declaration of Independence.

Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Don't get any simpler than that.

DOW JONES HAPPINESS

After hitting my March target of 6500 the Dow Jones rallied over the past two days thanks to reports of unexpected CitiBank profits and an announcement that the Federal Government might not seek tighter accounting regulations from the banks. Heartened by the possibility for the resumption of voodoo economic tactics, brokers yahooed their customers into believing that now was the time to buy undervalued stocks such as Bank of America Corp., General Electric Co., General Motors Corp., and Pfizer.

This surge in confidence created up to $900 billion in paper wealth without taking into account yet another month in which jobless claims rose higher than the previous month.

In other words the emperor is still wearing no clothes.

Fridays are traditionally a day for profit-taking.

The question is whether brokers will risk leaving in their stakes over the weekend.

My bet is that greed wins out.

Beware of the Ides of March.