West Virginia Sushi

For no good reason, there are a lot of sushi bars in the Mountaineer State.

For every good reason, I wouldn't eat at any of 'em.

A Step in the Right Direction

Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the 0:23 mark of the upper video linked here.

The Buffalo Sabres appear to be officially gravitating back to a charging bison over two crossed swords.  If it's at center ice today, it's there for the whole season.  This dovetails with the unveiling of the "new" third jersey.  Classic.  And classy!

Season starts Fri - Oct 10th @ 7:30 PM (ET) when BUF hosts the Canadiens de Montreal.

Away Banana Slugs.  Let's Go Buffalo!

Fallout from the Blast

Now it's the day after tomorrow.  The "intelligent" consensus is Congress will eventually get an economic deal done.  I'm confident too they'll come together in the end to sell out the American people.  After all, ours are the best politicians money can buy.

That notion greatly comforts the bourses*, having mostly rebounded after Monday's freefall. But watch out on Main Street.  Industrial production ground to a halt over the last week.  Zip Zero.  Nada.  If you produce steel, cars, machinery, or the like your customers canceled their orders last week.  You in turn canceled orders with your suppliers this week.  Next week it moves up the supply chain.  Bye-bye Christmas bonus.  If you're still employed.

I don't like this bailout plan.  It sickens me -- as you can read two items below -- to the core that reckless spenders, borrowers, and hucksters get made whole.  Why not do it all over again?

However, the current state of affairs means no credit.  No credit means no new buildings, cars, cranes, planes, forklifts, elevators, plumbing, couches, carpet, clothes, and all the other crap we charge.  Americans consume.  Americans borrow to consume.  That's the way it is.

And we pay the monthly installment with wages from our jobs.  Are you feeling pretty saucy because your job isn't in manufacturing or construction?  Don't be.  Folks with jobs order meals at restaurants, buy earrings from the Piercing Pagoda, get their nails done, splurge on strudel, go to football games, take vacations, make sure their cars are insured, and all that other optional fun stuff.

Unemployed people don't.

So, good job Wall Street!  You've created an economic Frankenstein now running roughshod over the country.  And congratulations Congress!  You've shrunk in response to the greatest challenge any of you arrogant fat cats will ever face.  Right on Hanky Paulson!  You told us to give you a $700 billion check and just trust you to do the right thing.

Oh, and the rest of the world.  Don't get smug.  The USA is taking its hits now, but you people haven't even begun pulling on the sweater.  Europe's got the same toxic debt as here.  China is rapidly losing its (one way) trading partner.  Oil prices will follow demand downward hurting those sympathetic Middle Eastern sheiks and rabble rousers.  Third world nations won't be getting aid.

Anybody own a yurt compound?

* Bourse = Stock Market.  I used the more worldly term to ingratiate myself with the Nobel literary committee.  Apparently, US writers are too insular:  link

Feckless Cowards

Okay, it's tomorrow.  My 401(k) shrank about 12% overnight.  Well, ten bucks is ten bucks.  World markets haven't caught the American flu - yet - playing mostly even overnight.  We'll see how Wall Street handles its existential crisis in a few hours.

Meanwhile, the economic meltdown has indeed become the defining moment many anticipated for America's leadership .  But not in the way most thought.  Our "leaders" have failed outright in dealing with the situation.  The consequences will be permanent.

Forget George "Bobblehead" Bush.  His tenure is done; his credibility shredded.  No one trusts him.  Not his own obstinate party, not his snivelling opponents.  Not the Gore / Kerry delusionists who still believe two elections in a row were "stolen".  And certainly not his formerly stalwart conservative supporters whose trust was squandered, faith shattered by his ravenous, bloated, big brother vision of government.

Look first at Nancy Pelosi whose incompetence was on full display yesterday.  Oh no, not her petty little tirade against "failed Bush economic policies" and mean-spirited Republican self dealing.  It certainly wasn't helpful, of course, to have partisan sniping from the Speaker of the House immediately before calling a vote on "the most important legislation of our time".

Instead, Pelosi's failure was not knowing the vote count before taking the vote.  That's a process called "whipping" the House.  It's the kind of thing you do before voting to name an airport in Fargo.  Apparently not for "the most important legislation of our time".

How about those petty Republicans gaining all the ink in the New York Times' editorial today?  Let's see.  We've got a bill of epic proportions, highly controversial in scope.  Time to man-up and pass it.  You know, for the good of the country.  But Nancy's speech really hurt my feelings.  She's so mean!  Screw the country.  I'm gonna go pout in the corner.  That'll show her.

Barney Frank?  John Boehner?  There's a dueling duo who'd be better suited to playing hide the sausage than saving the financial system.  The only thing more sickening is the thought of that weaselly vampire Harry Reid leading debate when the Bill finally gets to the Senate.

And to "Hank" Paulson, why is this crisis so surprising?  Why must the solution be massive government aid?  Is the private sector wholly incapable of shouldering its share?  What confidence do you have the package you designed will work?  What's your back up plan?  How much will it cost?

It would be helpful to hear you provide facts instead of the economic fear -- terror? -- tactics you've used so far.  Will world will really end and all be lost if this bailout fails?

There's plenty of blame to go around here - both in the immediate failure and in the inept decisions that lead up to the crisis.  Republicans exercised zero regulatory oversight.  Democrats sponsored loans to dubiously solvent borrowers.

We need an adult in the room to get the strap out and make these brats clean up their mess.  Instead, we've got an 11-year old baby sitter while Daddy's passed out drunk and Mama's hookin' on the corner.  And the 4-year olds are playing with matches next to the half-empty bottle of everclear.

I'm sorry.  That's not helpful talk.  Instead, I'm supposed to express deep disappointment in Congress's failure to expeditiously resolve the situation.

Vote the bums out!  All of 'em.

Burn Baby, Burn: In which I compare Titans of Finance with Roman pudding addicts

It's a disco inferno on Wall Street today.

I'm not going to be happy once my 401(k) evaporates, my customers all go out of business, and my job leaves for a more stable economy...like Afghanistan.  But, for a moment at least, the humbling ruination of pathologically reckless financial titans is gratifying.

People complain about greed as the root cause of the USA's economic meltdown.  It's not.  I'm greedy.  You are too.  If you deny it, I'll know you're lying.  Everybody wants some.  I want some too.  Wisdom for the ages courtesy of that monetary guru, David Lee Roth.  [All you Zionist conspiracy nuts ought to like that one.  Idiots.]

Big deal!  This has been going on since time began.  It is human nature:  Poor men want to be rich, rich men want to be kings, and kings ain't satisfied until they rule everything.  [Ha, Gotcha!  Springsteen's a Catholic.  That ought to set off the Papist conspiracy nuts.]  Speaking of Rome, just ask any centurion who noticed that his buddy got an extra salt allotment.  He killed that other guy in his sleep and took the extra salt for himself.  Go ahead, ask him.

Or just ask any 4th grader in the cafeteria line which pudding cup has one angstrom unit more than all the others.

No, this isn't about greed.  It's recklessness; selfish disregard for any and all consequence.  The same sort of mentality of a serial killer or rapist.  Or even the punk doing doughnuts on your lawn in his bitchin' IROC-Z.  I want it.  Now.  And I don't care about the devastation to you.  Or me.  Just give me that froth of fleeting joy.  And some more.  Now.  Ad infinitum.  Whoo hoo.

Hell, I've heard of heroin addicts with greater moral restraint!

Well cold turkey is a bitch for junkies and financial types alike.  They're both deathly intoxicated on the poison of their choice.  Dependent on the power it gives them to command their fantasy.  Except smack addicts are usually pretty humble; fully aware their activities are frowned upon by straight folk.

These "wizards" -- who bundled & sold debt, currency, equity, commodities, taxes, revenues, et al into byzantine derivatives that even our greatest & smartest economists can't understand! -- display more god-syndrome arrogance than commonly associated with cardiac surgeons, guys and dolls who actually hold the power of life and death in their hands.  Your cardiologist might be an asshole, but at least he saved a life or 100 in his career.

So until tomorrow comes and my 401(k) is a 100.25(f), I'm savoring the fall of all these false gods.

What?  No bailout from Washington means a terrible new Great Depression?  Well, you can always bail out from the 19th floor.

That's a lesson from the last Great Depression these douche bags could learn...at the very least.

 - Sam Gribley

Think Stanley Cup

Breathing fire, dressed for success & ready to roll.  And ownership showing presence pitifully absent last season:

"This team is really poised to have a really good year this year.  I think if we don’t make the playoffs this year, we’d be really disappointed.  In fact, I’d probably chew this microphone.”

-  Tom Golisano, Sep 20th speaking to media at the opening of training camp

Fundamentally Unserious

These people are our leaders, opinion makers, etc?  Fuck 'em all.  And then fuck all those who put them in charge:  us!  Just give me the courtesy of a reach-around afterward.

 - Danny Partridge

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"The fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong." - John McCain, (R-AZ) US Senator and Presidential Candidate

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"You need to work on your pecs." - Joe Biden, (D-DE) US Senator and Vice-Presidential Candidate (while tapping a reporter on the chest)

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Question:  "Do Democrats deserve some responsibility for the current economic crisis?"

Answer:    "No." - Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) US Congressman & Speaker of the House

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"No one knows what to do." - Harry Reid, (D-NV) US Senator & Majority Leader

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"Obama wants to change Washington.  McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy.  Yet the polls remain close.  Doesn't make sense...unless it's race." - Jack Cafferty, CNN commentator

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"Obama is stoking racial antagonism.  (His) campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making" - Rush Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio talk show host