OATH OF THE FREEDOM FIGHTER

Why?

2007-10-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Don't have childeren. Sounds radical doesn't it? Biology compels us to reproduce. Society has pre-programmed many of us that the natural course is to have childeren. The government gives you tax incentives to have kids so they get more worker bees.

Expectant mothers seem happy, the fathers (if they're around) seem to agree, right? Many of them seem to be liars. In private they're wondering how they'll be able to afford them. How it will change what they, the parents, had for dreams and goals in their lives.

Most of the childeren that I've seen come into the world have been accidents. There have been very few planned pregnancies among those I know. That seems strange to me because I look around and believe that I associate with generally responsible people.

I was a child once, I don't remember but there are pictures of me. My parents, aunts and uncles tell me I was quiet and didn't cause much disturbance. I'm glad that's how I was so I don't sound synical.

I don't want childeren because I can't stand screaming, crying or any other noise associated with them. I enjoy spending time with my friends, working hard, building my business and so on. Kids would prevent that and I know I would resent them for it. You must be commited to having childeren and really desire them or I think you should forget about it.

Each generation has had more than the last for 160 years now. This is about to change. As we enter global energy decline everyone on earth will be competing for resources. I'm wondering how I'll take care of myself and I'm financially fit, can perform physical labor and I have useful mechanical trade skills to earn a living. Childeren would be a terrible drain on the scarce resources that will be at my disposal.

If a child is what you want I push my strongest recommendation against it. That will just be another mouth to feed as the economy collapses over the next 20 years.

The happiest couples I know are child-free; doing what they want when they want. My real estate mentor just retired at age 36 so she and her husband can do and see everything they've ever wanted. Tough to do if junior has to get to school. Will you wait until later in life to do those things? What if you don't live that long? What if oil is too expensive for travel then?

This post is more or less a notice to those in my life who are having childeren. I can not pretend to be happy for you any more. Your choice is accellerating the decline of resources in our world. You force me to pay for their education and it doesn't benefit me one bit. You force your employer to pay you while you you're away from work having the baby.

And why do you all send me pictures of your baby, stacks of them! As if I should be proud of you for doing something that a dog can do. Would you be happy for me if I sent you pictures of my new motorcycle? You wouldn't care either so stop being angry at me.

I've dreaded the thought of having a child since I was 16 years old and my belief has only become stronger with time. Everyone dreads a crying baby near them on an airplane. I'm yet to understand why many desire to have that next to them 24 hours a day.

After exposing my true feelings I wonder if I should even post this. Since you're reading it you know I didn't hesitate. I want all of my friends and family to be happy and enjoy their lives however they wish and if that means having childeren, then so be it. But can someone tell me a reason to have childeren without saying, "They're worth it" or "You'll understand when you have them"?

America ............. fuck yeah

2007-08-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Its almost training time! Kellene, who teaches this class, is unrelenting. Its 12 hours a day for four days straight. Many would dread it but I can't wait. Some of the opportuninty is just meeting and associating with those in the course. This trip will be the best trip I've ever taken and I'll be working the whole time. Sounds strange but its true. I may need professional head-shrinking help.

Hot Wheels

2007-07-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know my truck got smashed while parked at Barley John's. The insurance company that insures the car that caused the damage blows! They've fought me every step of the way through the claim.

The the car rental company supposedly doesn't have enough pickup trucks. If I don't have something to haul cargo the vending business will go belly up. I asked for a pickup and here's what I got.

Everybody put on your rapin' caps cause its FUN TIME!

Yes! In your face buddy!

2007-06-21T06:11:00.001-07:00

A Ron Paul video you've never seen

2007-06-19T00:28:00.001-07:00

This is from 1988. Its just over one minute. You're going to love this one!

Now wasn't that awesome!

Bitches ain't Shit!

2007-06-16T18:55:00.001-07:00

" border="0" alt="" />

Charly the Unicorn

2007-05-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

You have to watch it all the way to the end or you're wasting your time. But if you were actually using your time wisely you wouldn't be reading my blog would you?

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

Porn Bust

2007-05-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

A little way down the post list here you can see where I plugged my cousin's porn site. My cousin was helping his friend Andy get it going on the web. Well someone discovered what Andy was doing in his free time and put it in the paper. Unfortunately for Andy he's a teacher at a Church of England school, this won't do wonders for his teaching career:

http://www.northamptontoday.co.uk/news?articleid=2840227

/rant_on

2007-05-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to punch the next person who tells me they "made money" owning their home. You didn't make jack shit if your personal residence went up in value. Its true that house values tend to go up over time but most all of the increase is inflationary, not real value. One huge problem is that you're measuring the value of your home in U.S. Dollars which are always going DOWN in value. If you measured your home's value in ounces of gold you'd find the value has been flat for years.

Remember when a three bedroom rambler in Roseville was $120,000, gold was $270, gas was $1 per gallon, smokes were $1.95 and a 20oz bottle of soda was $.93. It was about eight years ago. Here's the update for those of you who haven't left your parent's basement for a while: The house is $250,000, gold is $680, gas is over $3, smokes are over $4 and soda is almost $1.50. It's the inflation stupid.

If one of these savvy economist homeowners sells their home, a comparable home will cost the same (minus the parasidic real estate agent costs), so really they're losing. The only real advantage of buying your own home, financially speaking, is that your payment stays the same and rents (the alternative) tend to only go up. (Legal Disclaimer: This assumes your mortgage is fixed and not adjustable and excludes tax and insurance payments.)

Props to Crispy for pointing this out to me, something I never thought of that really makes people shut up: How long would you have to own your home for it to appreciate enough so you could sell it and buy two neighboring homes exactly like it with the sale proceeds? It doesn't take long to realize that it will never happen. Your house went up because the dollar went down. The real value increase is small or nothing at all.

If your house is your biggest asset then your financial problems are larger than you have ever imagined. Something is always better than nothing but your abode doesn't really look like an ATM, please don't try to turn it into one. (Although if you'd like to ATM your house I can help.)

I try to explain this stuff to people in the real estate business but very few get it. Most of these people are products of the public school system and haven't heard of M3 anyway. Those who do get it are not my converts, they already know what's up. (I've yet to make a convert.) They talk about home appreciation when they should be talking about dollar devaluation. I think most people are so conditioned to prices rising all the time that they view it as normal with no way to stop it. Rising prices are just the way it is and they don't understand why. The Fed is why!

BTW: Why are people buying bonds at less than 4.9% yield when inflation is about 5.5%? Who are these people? Whoever they are they're fuckin' themselves with a Big Inflation Dick (BID). I love you Mogambo!

/rant_off

no title today

2007-04-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

There is only one good kind of cop.

Childeren are the worst STD.

Pawlenty's pen will cause real estate to crash.

Stanhope is awesome.

Not another post, ugh

2007-03-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

Finally government has taken the steps necessary to save us from smoke by force. Remember its for our own good. The only thing left to be decided upon is the start date, hopefully later rather than sooner.

I bought two packs of smokes for $10 at the gas station on Tuesday evening. The only other customer in the store asked me, "What'll ya do when those are illegal?" Without hesitation I replied, "Go home and clean the guns." That seemed to scare the crap out of him and I'm glad it did. People don't even question that cigarettes being illegal could be a reality. It'll never happen though, too much tax revenue at stake.

Speaking of taxes here's a proposal working it's way through the Capitol. The plan is to tax the "rich" a lot more so the poor can get a break, and what a break it is. It's proposed that if your taxable income is less than $5,400 (meaning poor) you'll recieve 90% of your property tax money back in a refund from the State of Minnesota. Don't worry, the "rich" are paying for it, so it's morally palatable.

Ohio passed some nasty lending laws about a year ago that banned about 35% of all mortgage loans. Forclosures have hit the roof, prices are falling and few people can get a loan. The solution now is that the State of Ohio is going into the mortgage lending business. They're planning on selling $100 million dollars in bonds and refinancing people who are behind on their loans. History tells us that government funded bailouts usually are the answer and I'm sure this will work without the usual unintended consequences of government action.

I think its a city in Texas that adopted a law to ban the feeding of homeless people without a license. Obviously it's almost impossible to get the license when YOU'RE A PRIVATE CHARITY FEEDING HUNGRY, MENTALLY RETARTED PEOPLE so most organizations quit trying. One church is suing the state over the issue which is a better use of resources than wasting those funds helping those in need like a charity should be doing.

The police were doing well this week too. In Saint Louis Park they raided the wrong house. Now the home owners can't sleep without nightmares of Storm Troopers. Somewhere else in the country some Storm Troopers tasered a guy three times while he vomited all over himself. That wasn't enough so a Storm Trooper stood over him and shot him three times in the chest, at point blank range, in front of his friend and her two childeren. The victim was a veteran of Iraq so at least he was familiar with treatment like that. How does it feel?

A group of people who had been tortured by the US gubbamint and found to be innocent tried suing Donald Rumsfeld and had their suit thrown out of court. The judge said that Rumsfeld couldn't be held responsible for the actions of people under his command, he can't keep track of all those people. Torture, it's all good now.

How much longer can this continue? Forever. That's right, forever. And it'll only get worse.

DDO killed my friends

2007-03-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hey you, it's been a while. How've you been? So sorry about not calling lately, or blogging for that matter. It's all my fault.

Seven days a week of work is getting old. I always thought I wanted to work harder and harder but now I realize I need to focus and work smarter. So much of what I do is hit and miss but it all seems to pile on one day of the week and nearly kill me. To my good friends who I haven't spent much time with lately I apologize. Give me a call so we can hang out. I think the vending company may go up for sale this summer. One person has already expressed interest upon mention of the possibility, I'll call ya first Daddy.

In the inspiration department Tim at the mortgage company got back from his commercial carreer seminar with a fresh dose of inspiration. The woman who runs the program is BIG TIME and very inspiring. I spoke with her on the phone for just a few minutes recently and even that had a big effect on me. She doesn't take any excuses for not growing your business. This woman earns more in one day than anyone reading this blog earns in a year. Its just amazing what she does. Tim and I are going fishing for bigger fish now. Well, not me really, more just Tim.

Went to a car dealership to get an oil change today. When the girl typing my information in the computer asked for my name she and I made eye contact for just a moment. One second later she and I both realized the last time we saw each other we had a conversation in the bathroom at a house party years ago. Previous to today that was the first and last time I saw her. It was uncomfortable to sit in that waiting area for the next half-hour.

Remember that security in life doesn't exist, so stop looking for it. All there is in life are different degrees of risk.

Keep your iron clean and ready.

Mortgagebringer

Responding to j x 2

2007-01-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

j x 2 said, "Ahhh...Libertopia. A "community" of individuals concerned solely with #1."

Here's the deal. Everyone is selfish to a point and we all need to look out for ourselves. Even after stealing half of our resources each year the government still can't help us. If you think I'm selfish, I am. Here's my question: What's the object of the game of Monopoly? I'll help you. The object is to buy as much property as you can, charge as high of rent as possible, collect all of the money, property and resources from the other players until you have all the money, they have none, you're rich, they're broke and you win. Life is no different.

Anyone under age 35 who thinks that social security will help them in retirement needs a brain transplant. There's no help coming, it will be every person for themselves. As the government steals more the people will become more and more selfish and the spiral will continue.

You seem to dislike the fact that a Libertarian may look out for themselves before others and I'll tell you that I certainly do. The last thing that I'm worried about is how you're going to pay your rent this month, frankly I don't care.

It's really simple. You either sit down and make a plan to make more money in your life or your life will be the result of somebody else's plan, maybe even mine.

After reading all of that I do give back. I donate $100 per month to Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly because I hope I'm not lonely in my old age. See we aren't as selfish as we sound.

A Recent Newspaper Article?

2007-01-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

Predatory real estate practices have become more common in the Twin Cities area. As housing prices decline some Real Estate salespeople and mortgage brokers have taken advantage of those in need of help. A common tactic used is called a "Sale Lease-Back." In this transaction the victim doesn't realize they have had their home stolen out from underneath them and their equity stripped away. Landlords are also becoming more desperate as rents have been falling throughout the Metro Area.

Cassandra Lopez of Minneapolis is one of those victims. Now homeless and living outside the Campbell Mithun Tower in Minneapolis Lopez says, "He said it was the right thing to do, now look at me! I'm homeless!" Taken advantage of by a crooked mortgage broker she sits and begs a passer by, "Change sir?" Less than a week ago while begging for money Lopez was kicked in the teeth by a man who refused to help. The man charged in the crime, Luke Douglason (L - St. Paul), commented, "Get a job you dirty lobster cunt." Police used a chemical irritant to subdue Douglason when he was arrested at his place of employment after the lunch time incident.

Lopez accuses Lex Taylor (L - New Brighton) of stealing her home and defrauding her of thousands of dollars. "She should have known better," said Taylor when reached for comment. "All these people who speak nothing but Mexican think they can buy all of our houses. They're OUR houses! I'm the only one trying to stop it. You should be thanking me."

Landlords are getting more money hungry too. Recently at HCMC three people were shot to death while being treated for smoke inhilation after their duplex caught fire in Northeast Minneapolis near Arthur and Broadway. Two others died in the fire. Their landlord, Kory Sachs (L - Minneapolis) has been charged with arson, murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, insurance fraud, sexual assault and sodomy. "You don't pay rent, you don't leave, you trash the place and you expect me to just sit there? Screw You!," screamed Sachs through the bars at the Hennepin County Jail.

Most of the charges stem from the fire that Sachs is accused of starting. When asked why he shot the survivors Sachs said, "Cause they'd sue me! That's the kind of sub-human animals they are!" The sexual assault and sodomy charges stem from when police found Sachs at another of his rental properties in Minneapolis. According to the criminal complaint Sachs forced a tenant to perform oral sex on him as a "Late Fee."

Using the term "Sub-Human Animals" to describe tenants comes from a man known only as Mike (L - St. Paul), founder of the "$lumlord$," a street gang in the Highland Park area of St. Paul. Standing outside his home and leaning against his 2006 Chevrolet Corvette he said, "I had to throw a lot of single moms out on the street in the dead of winter to get this fuckin' thing! It's like a rounding error in my checkbook to buy shit like this!"

Mike's laugh is more of an evil grunt say his neighbors. We asked Mike if he feared being prosecuted by the Ramsey County District Attorney for all of the building code and human rights violations his gang commits. Mike responded by saying, "I've got it covered, they're on the payroll."

David Thune (Douche - St. Paul) could not be reached for comment. His secretary said he could be found mingling with his constituents from the driver's seat of his M1 Abrams Tank smashing tobacco shops and running down cigarette smokers with the .50 caliber machine gun today.

Porn

2006-12-13T00:27:00.000-08:00

I always thought pornography was an interesting business. It's not as if there's a shortage of porn out there. If you can imagine anything being shoved into any orifice on a body, someone has probably filmed it and put it on the web. That being said there's always a demand for more and more and more. The supply will never exceed the demand, what a great business model!

There's tons of money to be made in the industry and now someone I know is working on a porn site. I wanted to share it because I'm proud to be associated with anything that runs against social norms or would piss off your common religious zealot. I can share this becuase the only member of my family who reads my blog is the person working on this site. I'm now officially related to a pornographer. Check it out!

www.am69.net

Why should you buy a home if the price may go down?

2006-12-12T04:17:00.000-08:00

I meet a lot of people who are delaying a first time home purchase because they think the prices may come down somewhat in the near future. That's true, prices may fall in the near term but here's why these folks should buy now.

First of all mortgage rates are near historical lows. Inflation fears in the mortgage market are low and that keeps rates down. The 30-year fixed rate has fallen from 6.77% a few months ago to 6.11% today. If inflation fears or other risk factors in lending worsen the rates will go up.

So say you buy a home today for $200,000 and one year from now you could buy the same home for $190,000 because the price goes down. If you buy the home today your principal and interest payment at 6.11% would be $1,213 per month. This excludes insurance and taxes but those are influenced by other factors.

If you wait for a year and buy the same home for $190,000 and interest rates are three quarters of a percent higher your payment would be $1,311. You'll be paying an extra $125 per month in interest and your payment is $98 higher. If you had bought a year earlier you also would have reduced the principal amount by $2,123 already. You also (depending on your situation) have probably reduced your income taxes with credit for mortgage interest and property taxes paid by about $1,000 for that year as well. Plus you own a home of your own instead of renting.

The alternative: If you had kept renting your rent probably went up by $30-$40 per month for your one bedroom apartment over the year you waited. And what if mortgage rates AND prices go up? Now you really got hosed. Plus if you keep renting your rent is going to go up with inflation each and every year and it will probably outpace your paycheck. How many times can you downsize before you live in a closet?

One of the biggest regrets in my life is listening to the advice that dad gave me about buying a home. He told me to save up a down payment to get a better interest rate. I didn't quesiton his advice and I got screwed. Prices of homes went up 35% while I was saving. I kick myself every day for not looking for more advice.

There are two groups of people in this country. One group is making mortgage payments and buying real estate for themselves. The second group is paying rent and buying real estate for someone else, their landlord. Which group would you rather be in?

And if you're willing to live in an apartment you own and you make about $35,000-40,000 per year here's something really cool. I can show you how you could buy a 4-unit apartment building, live in one of the units for about the same as your current rent and only pay taxes on $10,000 of your income for the next five years.

The Bridges of Saint Paul

2006-12-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

I'd do some copypasta or give you a link to what I saw in the Sunday Pioneer Press but I can't. It wasn't an article or editorial, it was an advertisment. The ad was on the back of the North Metro section. It was a full page ad describing the reasons why the Bridges of Saint Paul is a good idea in a futile attempt to win public support.

There's always going to be people who disagree with whatever someone else is doing and for many different reasons. The people developing this project (I have no idea who) just need good public opinion to get this through the development process. People object to the Bridges of Saint Paul because they say it's too big, too expensive, too ugly, too obtrusive........who gives a fuck. If someone wants to build the thing with their own money, let them build it for fuck sake. If someone wanted to take the duplex next to me and convert it to a dirty book store I'm all for it. And if any of my neighbors tried to use the force of government to stop it, I might become an investor in that new small business myself.

I just don't care at all. Personally I think the Bridges of Saint Paul is a disgusting endorsement of consumerism with the gazillions of square feet of retail space it'll have but I still don't care. If someone wants to build it, go ahead.

What caught me about this ad was the really disturbing though. It wasn't that the ad touted the new jobs it'll create and the construction jobs it'll maintain at least for a while. It wasnt' that the ad showed a nice rendering of one of the buildings and invited you to come see their condo models that are now open. The problem is that it BOASTED of the ESTIMATED TAX REVENUE IT WILL CREATE!

The ad agency that created this knows that the people in Minnesota are so pro big government that they'll cum in their pants when they hear the government is getting more tax money. So much so that they need to specify that! If the sheeple just see that more tax will go to the government then they'll do the lobbying for project themselves!

As if more taxes will fix our problems. That's a bunch of crap but the sheeple believe it. Maybe the increased tax dollars can be used to take some D average high school dropouts and turn them into police officers. That would certainly fix some problems. Yeah, sure. More tax revenue (theft) won't fix dick but no one see that. If we just had more worthless cops, social workers, paper pushers, middle managers and $31 per hour MNDOT employees producing next to no benifit to society this just might be a better place to live. Hell no.

I can't believe a group of people had to advertise the fact that they'll pay more taxes just to develop a new piece of real estate, sick.

It's 6:00 a.m. I think I'll cry until I have to go to work. :(

A little polish ..... aw forget it, not even funny anymore

2006-11-24T17:58:00.001-08:00

My apologies to those who read my blog and actually care about what I'm up to, it's been too long since my last update.

Started hanging out with Max again on a more regular basis which is great. I wish he would make it to poker night to talk a little treason with the rest of us. Maybe next time.

It's been great to have some free time lately which has been seriously lacking for months now. The mortgage biz is up and running except for some finishing touches. Tim, the owner and only other person there has been seriously stressed out lately. Some things haven't gone as well as they were supposed to.

Tim reached his breaking point on Wednsday. A telemarketer from Pitney Bowes called for the third time in two hours to waste our time trying to sell us crap we don't need. I answered the call on speakerphone. As soon as Tim heard it he ran into my office, picked up the phone and screamed, "FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, STOP CALLING HERE!" As if that will make their dialer remove our number or something. It was kind of scary, never seen him like that before, he's a really nice guy.

He slammed my phone handset down so hard he cracked it. I bought a new one with my own money figuring if I told him he broke it, he'd be pissed off again. I almost felt like a beaten wife that day, speaking softly to avoid pain. Everyone has their bad days though, I was yelling about the cunts who run this fuck stick operation later that same day. That company really needs to fire everyone and start fresh.

My neighborhood has now turned into da hood for two reasons. First, my neighbors have a couch and loveseat on their deck exposed to the elements. Second, there was a guy slapping his wife/girlfriend/baby momma in their driveway while he held her by the throat (I didnt' get to see that, the neighbors told me). This city's going downhill, or maybe it's just the slum rental property area I live in.

If anyone would like a 1 bed, 1 bath 750 sq ft co-op unit at 36th and Grand in S. Minneapolis give me a call. It's not on MLS and the lady would probably sell it for about $115K if I don't have to put it on MLS. We're putting it on MLS the first week of January. Last unit that sold there went for $134K three months ago.

My condolences to Jeremy who has been hospitalized with a terminal case of copypasta disease, what a terrible way to go. :(

Lee and Luke

2006-10-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

I found some sites for you guys:

http://www.startrekuniformguide.com

http://www.starbase1.com

http://www.realdoll.com/

http://inyourmouth.com

You're welcome,

Rex

The stock market playas

2006-10-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

I read Jim Kunstler's blog on occasion and "playas" is what he refers to the financial market kingpins as. I thought it would be a good term to start using, just calling them what they are.

You and I don't set the price in the markets, the playas do. The mutual, hedge and pension fund managers set the prices. Most of the pension fund managers are little more than bumbling government workers. They, like many money managers, do well when the Dow is up and poorly when the Dow is down which brings me to my topic: Is the Dow up over the last few years or not?

In U.S. dollar terms the market is even with where it was about 5 years ago, at a record high. The Dow is a good indicator of the on-paper wealth in the stock market but over time it's decieving. Why? INFLATION!

The dollar has lost about 25% of it's value since 2000 against a basket of other currencies (depending on which basket you use, that number changes slightly.) When the market playas talk about oil prices they always qualify it by saying oil prices are not near their inflation adjusted high from at least a hundred years ago. Why don't they say the same thing about the Dow? In order for the Dow to be even, it would have to be (depending on what inflation data you use) at least 20% higher than it is today!

The root of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is the dollar-denominated share price of each component company. If it's dollar based, why doesn't anyone calculate the inflation adjusted value and report it? I think it's just protectionism of a system trying to prop itself up higher and higher. When you adjust the stock market over time for inflation the returns are sad. The bottom line is that you have to beat the market by at least 5% to overcome real inflation (not that core crap.) Then you must make another 9% annual gain to have a real gain so you can pay the taxes on your inflated gains and come out about 6.5 -7% ahead in real terms.

Bottom line, if the Dow is up 6% and inflation is 5%, you got pwned by the playas. You're lucky you broke even. You say you made 1% in that scenario, huh? You forgot about the TAXES!

I'm sorry

2006-10-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted for some time. I've been setting up a new office for the mortgage company I work for. Fifty hours were spent on the IKEA furniture alone. Now we're trying to get some internets. Hopefully we'll be done soon. But in vending news I found this on ytmnd.com, enjoy!

http://angryvendingmachines.ytmnd.com/

What did you say?

2006-09-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a newspaper reading excursion at Perkins in Fridley. At the tables in front of me, behind me and to my left I was surrounded by the Jerry Springer Show. The conversations at these tables were totally void of intelligent thought. They were so sad, yet funny at the same time.

There were four or five women at each table, no men at all. All of these women looked to be 20-35 but no older. Most were white, some were black, one was hispanic and one looked to be native american. The white trash girls were by far the funniest, most of the quotes are from them. I used the blank part of an ad in the Wall Street Journal to write down some great quotes from their conversations, enjoy.

"This shit is too damn much money. Why'd we come here? We should've gone to Denny's."

"Girl, I ain't got no idea who it is! The guy I thought it was passed the paternity test!"

"The first time I cheated on him he found out somehow but he ain't found out about any of that other shit."

"He's always talking about his other baby mamma, I hate that shit."

"My manager (of her apartment building) said I gotta pay with a money order cause my checks ain't no good, that's some bull shit."

"I can't get no money from that muthafucka, he all locked up."

"They bitchin at me when I'm like five minutes late for my shift, well, like 15 sometimes, but they should fuckin chill out."

"Does your man gotta job?"

Those are some of the best quotes but many of the others I wrote down are just more of the same. I'm grateful that I don't have anyone who is even close to this level of behavior in my life. I'm glad that my friends stand on higher ground and conduct their lives in a responsible manner, for the most part at least.

I, as an outsider looking in, think that these women's lives a complete mess. Sad part is that it's more normal than I realize. This is not the first time I've overheard conversations like these and it certainly won't be the last.

What's worse? These people vote.

Negative Balance

2006-09-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

The savings rate in this country has been negative for over a year now. This is one of the many things that will lead to the economic ruin of our country. The savings rate in China and Japan is over 40%! That's my goal and I don't think I'm even close to that yet.

It's not really hard to save, you don't have to be a severe cheap-ass like me. Just cut out some of the extra crap in your life. The following are some tips that don't even require you to change your lifestyle one bit:

1. Call your internet provider and tell them that you are going to switch (from dsl to cable or cable to dsl, whichever may apply. You will be transferred to their customer retention department who will ususally give you a low introductory teaser rate for the next three months. I go through this procedure every couple of months with Comcast now and it saves me about a hundred bucks per phone call.

2. Call your trash service provider and do the same thing. My trash bill is $43 every two months. If I call they'll drop it to an introductory rate of $25 for about four months. Then I repeat the process every four months just like with the Comcast.

3. Call your insurance company and raise the deductables on your car, renter, homeowner's and/or motorcycle insurance. This will save you some big bucks. Besides, when was the last time you made a claim? It's probably been a while. If an increase in your auto deductable of $500 decreases your annual premium by a $200 bucks, it'll save you money as long as you don't make a claim more than every 2.5 years. (I double checked my math this time Liz) By the way, the deductable on my B2300 is $2,500 and I only have liability coverage on my Jeep and Honda Shadow.

Most Americans have way too much insurance because they're broke and don't think they can risk having a lower premium. If something happens I'm sure you'll be able to find the extra $500 anyway.

Those are some tips to save some bucks. You could save a few hundred extra dollars per year if you put these into action. If you spend the money you save on more stupid crap you'll be no further ahead. In some future posts I'll cover some of the interesting income tax dodges I've learned over the past year.

Here is some fun anecdotal evidence of the current state of affairs. I had a good laugh reading this thread of discussion. The following thread began on theoildrum.com by a user named SelfAggrandizedTrader, several responses from other users follow:

SelfAggrandizedTrader:

"Twice, recently, the person in line in front of me at the drive-through ATM has accidentally left his receipt hanging out of the, "money-machine." Both of them were driving large SUV's: one an Escalade, the other an Explorer. The guy in the Escalade had a total of $12 left in his bank account, the guy in the Explorer, $19."

AlphaMaleProphetOfDoom: (this is Matt Savinar who runs www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net)

"oh god I wish you could have photographed the guy getting into his escalade with your camera phone and then I would have scanned the photo and his receipt on to the net! Absolute hilarity!"

Substrate:

"For an autocentric perspective:
Escalade 13 / 17: @$3/gal, $12 in bank account...roughly 52 miles city and 68 miles highway left in bank account
Explorer 16 / 21: @$3/gal, $19 in bank account...roughly 101 miles city and 133 miles highway left in bank account."

TechGuy:

"But how many miles left on the credit card is the real question. The good news is that I believe that many Americans may dump there McMansions and downsize into a new line of ultra tiny homes. Escalades and Explorers may just become the new american McMansions."

Another car question

2006-08-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

Insurgent Asks: I have noticed that exhaust is getting pulled in to the vent intake when I come to a stop, and the exhaust system is louder than it used to be. When I took it in to a shop, they told me that the muffler hanger had rusted off and that there is also a leak from the joint connecting the header pipe to the pipe going to the cat. They quoted me $269 to fix it.

My Response: Usually when a vehicle gets over 120,000 miles or so the engine mounts begin to give way. You don't notice it as shaking of the truck or anything like that. The only way to actually see it would be to remove the hood and watch the engine sway while you drive.

As the engine mounts allow the engine to twist more and more as torque is applied it wears out the flexible connection in your exhaust system that your shop wants to repair. The engine rocks to the side when you press on the accellerator and rocks back when you take your foot off the pedal. It's even worse in vehicles with manual transmissions because the engine rocks more times due to the gear changes and reapplication of the accellerator after each change. An automatic transmission applies the torque more smoothly with less change in torque throughout accelleration.

You can put a new gasket, known as a "doughnut" into that connection but it will probably just wear out and start leaking very soon. If you wanted to fix it properly new engine mounts are probably needed as well. Most automotive technicians don't make this connection and only repair the symptom of the illness (the exhaust leak) and don't look for the possible disease (the engine mounts).

The bottom line is that adding two engine mounts to the repair would probably add about $300 to the cost.

To see the engine move in your truck Jeremy will require help. Since your parking brake doesn't work, hook your trailer hitch to a tree with your tow strap. (I accept no responsibility for what might happen from doing this.)

Open the hood, put the truck in 1st and have someone rev it up and lightly apply the clutch. You'll see the engine rocking probably toward the passenger side. If the engine seems like it wants to jump over the fender, the mounts are junk.

When you're doing this stand on the side of the truck when you're looking at the engine. Just in case the strap falls off and the truck goes forward! There is no specification for what the engine should do or not do when you try this but it shouldn't move more than three inches or so from side to side for sure. Granted if you floor it and dump the clutch it will move more than three inches.

To do this by yourself put Play-Doh on the driver's side of the engine and close the hood. Reopen the hood and note how much the Play-Doh compressed. Now drive the truck and give 'er hell! Now recheck again and see how smashed the Play-Doh is. This will tell you how much the engine moves up while driving due to worn mounts.

Bored are you?

2006-08-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

Are you bored just crusing around the internet? Would you like some more excitement in your life? Well if you want the government thugs to break your door down and send you to Gitmo soon then you should read this blog every day! Not mine silly, this one:

www.ahmadinejad.ir

Yes, that's the new blog for the Supreme Leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! It's really him! Now that he's a fellow blogger, I must add him to my list of links.

When you go to his blog click on the flags in the upper right-hand corner to pick your language of choice.