Practiced 4th spear last night… I think I am getting it down. I can get through the whole thing and didn’t have to think about it. Did iron palm again for the first time in months. Amazingly the arms were just fine. 35 rolls with little to no pain. The shins however, that’s well, completely different. I was lucky to get 10. Suck.

Got a giant chunk, in fact finished the "a side" of broadsword two man set. I love it… so much fun.

Realized that I need to do a lot more  "working out" than I have been…

Watched the new South Park… I am so happy to see someone publicly stating just how incredibly bad the last Indiana Jones movie was. I mean literally scenes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg holding down and raping the Indiana Jones character. Freakin hilarious.

This morning, while I was making breakfast, I had CNN on and was watching some stuff on the economy and then I had an interesting thought. Ever watch "House"? Well, the majority of episodes follow a similar format. House is a savant at diagnosing people.

At the beginning of every episode, someone comes in with some mystery disease. They think it’s this, then they think it’s that. They run some tests, maybe some against the persons will. Sometimes they use shady tactics to get the patient to do what they want. In the end, most of the time, a successful diagnosis is made and the patient is saved.

I told you that to tell you this. Imagine now, if you will, that our economy is the patient and the federal government and the federal reserve are "House". The only difference, though, is that in our case, the economy doesn’t have House for a doctor. They have a failing first year medial student that doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing. It seems at this point, the patient should have died about 3 seasons ago, but, well, this med school fuck up apparently knows enough to keep said patient in a persistent vegetative state. Time to pull the plug, in my opinion.

Seriously, I am not saying I can do any better. I am not trained in the ways of national and global economies, however, it is my understanding that THESE PEOPLE ARE?!?!?!? The words "spend less than you have available" seem to be logical.

On a final note, while I was tagging this blog, I saw some tags I haven’t used in a while, particularly "optimistic" and "proud". There are things in my life that I am very optimistic and very proud of, however, many of my recent posts have been government/politics related.  So, with regard to the United States and the direction that it’s going. I am neither optimistic nor proud. Sad… I know…

So sad in fact that I have been thinking more and more about the people I would like to band with when the shit really hits the fan. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy, but whatever. Can anyone say kung fu commune in the middle of nowhere?

Ok, I’m done now. Bye.

You have GOT to be fucking kidding me…

LET

THEM

DIE!!!

AIG hits up Fed for more money

Three weeks after an $85 billion bailout, AIG is turning to the New York Fed for additional funding.

By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer

October 8, 2008: 5:52 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The New York Federal Reserve is lending up to $37.8 billion to American International Group to give the troubled insurer access to much-needed cash.

In exchange, AIG is giving the New York Fed investment-grade, fixed-income securities that it had previously lent out to other institutions for a fee. Those institutions are now returning these securities and want their money back.

The new program, announced Wednesday, is on top of the $85 billion the federal government agreed to lend to AIG last month to prevent the global company from collapsing. AIG said last Friday it had drawn down $61 billion.

The lending program is a way for AIG to get funding for its businesses, said a New York Fed spokesman. The system is similar to lending facilities the Fed provides to banks, which can also exchange collateral for cash.

The latest announcement does not jeopardize the government’s ability to recoup its loan to AIG, experts said.

"AIG will repay the loan," said Stewart Johnson, portfolio manager at Philo Smith, an investment bank specializing in insurance. "It’s just a matter of how much of themselves they will have to sell."

I am not a drunk driver. I rarely ever drink if I am driving. If I have 1-2 drinks, I stop well before I have to drive anywhere.

When I lived in NYC, I remember seeing roadblocks from time to time where the police would give you the once over and if they thought you might be drinking, give you a sobriety test.

I came across this article today:

Texas Becomes Roadblock Battleground
Interest groups battle over roadblocks ahead of the 2009 Texas legislative session.
Interest groups are pressuring Texas lawmakers to authorize the use of roadblocks ahead of their return for the 2009 legislative session. The practice of setting up barricades on roads to stop and interrogate motorists suspected of no wrongdoing has been unlawful since a 1994 state appeals court decision ruled that a "politically accountable governing body at the state level" must first approve their use. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has scheduled an October 23 deadline for briefs to decide the Texas Public Safety Commission’s request to bypass this requirement and approve roadblocks on its own authority.

Texas is one of fewer than a dozen states that currently prohibit warrantless searches of motorists. For that reason, the new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Laura Dean-Mooney, made convincing the Texas legislature of the need for roadblocks a high priority for her organization.

"I have a special place in my heart for Texas," Mooney said upon taking the top job in July. "But so much more must be done. Passing interlocks for all drunk driving offenders and sobriety checkpoints to deter drunk driving would be a great start."

MADD came close to a legislative victory in April 2007 when the state Senate voted unanimously to establish the waterborne equivalent of a roadblock. The proposed "boating safety checkpoints" would have allowed police to pull over and question all recreational boaters on lakes within the state. The legislation would also have given police the discretion to use force to take a boater’s blood to determine sobriety. The measure died when the state House declined to act on the bill.

The alcoholic beverage industry feels threatened by the chilling effect such draconian measures would have on sales of beer and wine at restaurants.

"By calling for roadblocks and mandating breathalyzers for first time offenders, regardless of their BAC level, MADD is ignoring the root cause of today’s drunk driving problem — hard core alcohol abusers," American Beverage Institute Managing Director Sarah Longwell said. "Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunk driving problem. That leaves adults who enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at a ball game, or a champagne toast at a wedding to be harassed at checkpoints."

The possibility of innocent drivers being arrested at such checkpoints is increased by a state police policy that gives troopers an incentive to accuse motorists of drunk driving. In a June meeting of the Public Safety Commission, a twenty-seven year veteran of the state police testified about drunk driving (DWI) arrest quotas.

"Also, my second item, some of the troopers that have earned vacation and putting in requests for vacation are being told that their vacation request will not be considered unless they are getting a certain amount of DWIs," retired Trooper Coy Lorance testified.

The commission responded by attempting to get around the prohibition on drunk driving roadblocks by referring to them as "license checks." The group put in the request to the attorney general last month after receiving an inconvenient response from the state police chief.

"Mr. Chairman, you had asked at the meeting prior to… prepare a document that would relate the legal responses to conducting driver’s license, registration, and insurance checkpoints," Department of Public Safety Director Thomas Davis testified in June. "I think it’s the recommendation of general counsel that without the authority being granted by a governance is that we’re not able to do that legally."

In a 2005 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that 99.29 percent of drivers stopped at state roadblocks were innocent. The results also showed that it took 53 percent more effort to make an arrest with a roadblock than to use traditional roving patrol techniques. Nonetheless, the court upheld the validity of roadblocks (view ruling).

The request letter sent to the attorney general is available in a 170k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: Request for Attorney General Opinion (Texas Department of Public Safety, 10/6/2008)

No doubt, I am pissed off that this bill was passed. We are up shit’s creek with no arms. The paddle was gone a long time ago.

Apparently, I didn’t have to do all of that work to figure out who from Texas voted for and against this bill. This site, govtrack.us does it all. This is great. No matter where you are, look up your reps. If they votes for this bill, DO NOT vote them back into their comfy congressional seat…

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes.xpd

Ok, so here is a listing of who represents Texas…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congressional_Delegations_from_Texas

Here’s how they voted for this bailout cluster-fuck bill:

Totals:

Total by party:

So there you have it. The names of people that votes "yes" for this incredible stinking pile of crap:

• John Culberson
• Kay Granger
• Ruben Hinojosa
• Silvestre Reyes
• Chet Edwards
• Charles Gonzales
• Lamar Smith
• Eddie Johnson
• Pete Sessions

Regardless of your party affiliation, you would be MAD to vote these people back into office. This election day.. let’s vote them out. The two here that represent for my district are Carter and Lamar Smith. When I pull the handle this November, I will NOT be voting for Lamar Smith. How did your rep vote?

I urge you to see who your reps are and see how they voted. Wikipedia, I am sure has a listing of everyone that represents for your state.

I don’t get it. Can anyone explain this to me?!? Does the bracket mean that that shit is 4.6 and the LDAP connector is 6.10?!? What?