Song of the month: Butterfly by Mason Jennings

Well last month we went with The Blow....this month we'll go with Mason Jennings and a tune you wont be able to get out of your head Butterfly .

Here's son lyrics:
It's still about the sweet little things you say
After all that i've run from,
Where the fuck did you come from
Butterfly, baby i still have my doubts about you 'cause
Butterfly, 'cause i can't find nothing bad about you and
Butterfly, you mess me up you made my heart double beat and
Butterfly, i don't know how it is you got inside of me
But you're in there now

Check it out. Here's the Mason Jennings Mason Jennings
myspace page as well so you can check out more of his catchy tunes.

Marquis Daniels and his dinosaur sheep

Ok ya'll here is the pro athlete quote of the week...straight from the Dallas Morning News. This is from Marquis Daniels who was traded from Dallas to Indiana a couple of years ago and he is talking about the adjustment on moving from Dallas to live in Indiana:

"I got a field of llamas next to my house. Daniels said. "I never saw those before in my life. I thought they were dinosaur sheep. You don't see that in Dallas unless you go to the zoo."


DINOSAUR SHEEP?

Thoughts

After living in the dark for so long a glimpse of the light can make you giddy
Strange thoughts come into your head and you better thinkem
Has a special fate been calling you and you not listening?
Is there a secret message right in front of you and you're not reading it?
Is this your last best chance?
Are you gonna take it?
Or are you going to the grave with unlived lives in your veins?

Interesting quote from CNBC this morning

Here's a telling quote from CNBC this morning.....
The 5 scariest words in the human language -

"Hilary Clinton, Commander in Chief"

Interesting to hear how bad she would be for business....raise individual taxes .... raise corporate taxes .....raise the capital gains tax .....

Not good for business .... only good for those on welfare and in the low income sectors. I am all for helping the lower class, but not by stepping on the investor and middle class that make this country run. Raising corporate taxes will not help the lower class as it will be the lowest paying jobs that will be eliminated to make up for the loss of profits from higher taxes. Where is the progress there? By raising small business taxes you actually will eliminate the under $15 an hour jobs of the people you are trying to help.

CNBC

Stock market drops....Buying opportunity?

Definitely the newsw of the day....Could be a good buying opportunity if you have the fortitude to look long term.

Wall Street suffered its second big drop in a week Wednesday, with investors worried about spreading fallout from the credit crisis at banks and about a dollar that just keeps getting weaker. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 360 points — just about matching its plunge of last Thursday. A passel of worries tormented investors, including the dollar, which swooned amid speculation that China will seek to diversify some of its foreign currency stockpiles beyond the greenback. Meanwhile, a record loss from General Motors Corp. owing to an accounting adjustment further dragged on sentiment.

Oil traded above $98 per barrel for the first time before retreating, and gold pushed higher, moves exacerbated by an anemic dollar.

The 13-nation euro hit a fresh record against the dollar — rising to $1.4729 — before falling back. The dollar fell not only against the euro but in Asia following a report that a senior Chinese political figure said China should diversify its $1.43 trillion foreign exchange reserves into the euro and other strong currencies.

The euro's rally put it well above the $1.4554 the currency bought late Tuesday in New York. The previous record high, also set Tuesday, was $1.4571. Financial stocks, battered in recent sessions by big write-downs by names like Citigroup Inc., fell again Wednesday amid fresh concerns about the extent to which bad debt tied to a faltering housing market will hurt balance sheets.

In late afternoon trading, the Dow fell 360.92, or 2.64 percent, to 13,300.02. The Dow, which had gained 117 points on Tuesday, had fallen 362.14 last Thursday, reflecting the extreme fractiousness on Wall Street these days. Broader stock indicators also pulled back Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 44.62, or 2.94 percent, to 1,475.65 — moving below the psychological benchmark of 1,500. The Nasdaq composite index fell 76.42, or 2.70 percent, to 2,748.76.

Thoughts on the falling dollar

I thought this was a very interesting read:
The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45. The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century. Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800.

Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years?

Nope. The dollar has plummeted in value, more so in Bush's term than during any comparable period of U.S. history. Indeed, Bush is presiding over a worldwide abandonment of the American dollar. Is it all Bush's fault? Nope.

The dollar is plunging because America has been living beyond her means, borrowing $2 billion a day from foreign nations to maintain her standard of living and to sustain the American Imperium. The prime suspect in the death of the dollar is the massive trade deficits America has run up, some $5 trillion in total since the passage of NAFTA and the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994.

In 2006, that U.S. trade deficit hit $764 billion. The current account deficit, which includes the trade deficit, plus the net outflow of interest, dividends, capital gains and foreign aid, hit $857 billion, 6.5 percent of GDP. As some of us have been writing for years, such deficits are unsustainable and must lead to a decline of the dollar.

A sinking dollar means a poorer nation, and a sinking currency has historically been the mark of a sinking country. And a superpower with a sinking currency is a contradiction in terms.

What does this mean for America and Americans? As nations realize that the dollars they are being paid for their products cannot buy in the world markets what they once did, they will demand more dollars for those goods. This will mean rising prices for the imports on which America has become more dependent than we have been since before the Civil War.

U.S. tourists traveling to the countries whence their ancestors came will find that the money they saved up does not go as far as they thought. U.S. soldiers stationed overseas will find the cost of rent, gasoline, food, clothing and dining out takes larger and larger bites out of their paychecks. The people those U.S. soldiers defend will be demanding more and more of their money. U.S. diplomats stationed overseas, students and businessmen are already facing tougher times. U.S. foreign aid does not go as far as it did. And there is an element of comedy in seeing the United States going to Beijing to borrow dollars, thus putting our children deeper in debt, to send still more foreign aid to African despots who routinely vote the Chinese line at the United Nations.

The Chinese, whose currency is tied to the dollar, and Japan will continue, as long as they can, to keep their currencies low against the dollar. For the Asians think long term, and their goals are strategic. China — growing at 10 percent a year for two decades and now growing at close to 12 percent — is willing to take losses in the value of the dollars it holds to keep the U.S. technology, factories and jobs pouring in, as their exports capture America's markets from U.S. producers.

The Japanese will take some loss in the value of their dollar hoard to take down Chrysler, Ford and GM, and capture the U.S. auto market as they captured our TV, camera and computer chip markets. Asians understand that what is important is not who consumes the apples, but who owns the orchard.

Other nations that have kept cash reserves in U.S. Treasury bonds and T-bills are watching the value of these assets sink. Not fools, they will begin, as many already have, to divest and diversify, taking in fewer dollars and more euros and yen. As more nations abandon the dollar, its decline will continue.

The oil-producing and exporting nations, with trade surpluses, like China, have also begun to take the stash of dollars they have and stuff them into sovereign wealth funds, and use these immense and growing funds to buy up real assets in the United States — investment banks and American companies. Nor is there any end in sight to the sinking of the dollar. For, as foreigners demand more dollars for the oil and goods they sell us, the trade deficit will not fall. And as the U.S. government prints more and more dollars to cover the budget deficits that stretch out — with the coming retirement of the baby boomers — all the way to the horizon, the value of the dollar will fall. And as Ben Bernanke at the Fed tries to keep interest rates low, to keep the U.S. economy from sputtering out in the credit crunch, the value of the dollar will fall.

The chickens of free trade are coming home to roost.

Democrats in charge? Here come the taxes

Hmmmmm get ready for 2009......here come the taxes.....
Cap Gains tax will go from 15% to 28%
Dividend tax goes from 15% to 28%
35% tax bracket goes to 38.7%

College Soccer Recruiting

This is for all the club soccer players that have a goal of playing college soccer. Available from Soccer-recruiting.com is a great packet with a ton of useful information on the college soccer recruiting process. Everything from identifying the right college soccer program to the best ways to contact that program as well as information on college showcasing and what to expect from the college soccer game.

Soccer-recruiting.com

Oh No Don Vito in trouble!

Don Vito, the fat crazy guy nobody can understand from Viva La Bam is in big trouble it sounds. Seems he has been convicted of 2 counts of sexual assault of a child. YIKES!

Vincent Margera, 51, who was accused of groping three girls ages 12 to 14 during an autograph signing event last year at mall skate park in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, fell to the floor cursing and yelled, "Just kill me now." He faces a sentence of probation to six years in prison on each conviction. If he doesn't comply with sex offender treatment as part of the sentence, he could potentially spend life in prison, district attorney's spokeswoman Pam Russell said.

Hopefully he makes it out ok.  Who doesn't love seeing all the spots he gets himself into on Viva La Bam.  Personally he is my favorite part of the entire show every week with his crazy speak and reactions.

America Online - What a joke

What a joke this company has become over the last 15 years. From being an internet darling in the early 90s to an afterthought today. I was a loyal AOL
customer thru the 90s, but switched to Comcast a few years back. Good luck trying to deal with AOL to cancel an account. First off you cant even think about speaking to someone in the United States about your problem. Off you go to Pakistan or India where the people neither care or can help. All they ask is your security question and such. Well who the hell knows what my security answer was that I made in 1992. Its been 15 years! So theres no possible way to close my account. Thus, I tell them they wont get paid....and they wont cuz they are retards.
What a joke....and they wonder why they have fallen so far.

New Amazing Race starting next month

Oh yeah! The new Amazing Race starts on November 4th. Defintely one of my favorite shows every year. It looks like some very interesting teams will be competing. A goth couple??? A father/daughter team that looks like one everyone will be cheering for. A pair of LA blondes. Should be fun. Get your tivo ready!

Opinions on Kid Nation?

Well when I first saw the commerials for Kid Nation I thought "how dumb". Something though tweeked my interest and made me check it out. Surprisingly enough it actually has pretty interesting moments as the kids delve into topics such as religion, curfews and responsibilities around town.

It is kind of a "Survivor" based show as there are challenges for rewards and town status. The town has been broken into 4 groups...Upper Class, merchants, cooks, and laborers. Each group has their own responsibilities within the town and get paid accordingly. Each of the 4 groups also has a leader that represents it on the town council.

Each week there are great things to see, such as how the town council interacts with their group. It's very interesting to see the 8-14 yr olds dealing with politics and such. Meals seem to always be an adventure as you would expect. The kids are completely responsible for preparing meals and cleaning up after meals. Seems nobody wants to do dishes and the town was flipped into a frenzy when killing and cooking a chicken was proposed.

Anyway, check out Kid Nation if you havent already seen it....you might be surprised by the entertainment value.

Planet in Peril on CNN this week

Check out Planet in Peril on CNN this week.

Heres a brief overview from yahoo news:
It's a tough world, all right. Too bad it's not tougher. Right now Earth is looking pretty fragile as it suffers from increasing human punishment. This isn't really news, of course. But CNN has packed the two-night, four-hour "Planet in Peril" with information and images that give a familiar story new urgency. Here is an eye-opening, often heart-wrenching exploration.

Airing Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. EDT, "Planet in Peril" dispatched correspondents Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as well as Animal Planet wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, to report on far-flung instances of "environmental change." This term encompasses four key areas: climate change, vanishing natural habitats, disappearing species and human overpopulation. By taking on so much, the series risks becoming a catchall bin of environmental woes.

"At first glance, it may seem unfocused," said executive producer Charlie Moore. "But those are the four pillars. Almost everything falls under them, and they're all interconnected. For instance, you can't talk about endangered species without dealing with overconsumption of the world's natural resources and overpopulation."

Just a few days before his airdate, Moore was racing to put the final touches on a project that began, he said, about a year ago, during a conversation with David Doss, his producing colleague on "Anderson Cooper 360," who served as senior EP for "Planet in Peril."

"We wanted to take a look at all of the world's environmental problems in one big swipe," said Moore, "and we wanted to avoid the clinical, classroom approach by going to the front lines of the stories."

CNN's first high-def production, "Planet in Peril" was shot — beautifully — all over the world, beginning last February in Brazil, where Cooper and Corwin explore connections between the rapid deforestation of the Amazon River Basin and changes in the world's climate.

Other points of interest include Cambodia, Alaska, Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park, Greenland and the African nation of Chad. One segment finds Cooper and Corwin in Bangkok. They accompany undercover police attempting, with little success, to raid shops that illegally traffic in wildlife from all over the world. Among dozens of other threatened creatures for sale, rare tortoises are glimpsed by CNN's hidden camera. They were imported all the way from Madagascar.

So off goes Corwin to Madagascar — a large island off the southeast coast of Africa — for the next segment. With 90 percent of its wildlife found nowhere else, Madagascar is a powerful draw for poachers. Meanwhile, deforestation and other environmental assault has left only 10 percent of its original habitat to support all that life, Corwin reports.

In a segment from China, Gupta reports that, partly thanks to economic boom and a surging population, China can claim 16 of the world's 20 most air-polluted cities. More than half of that vast country's rivers are severely polluted, he adds. He interviews the young widow of a farmer who died of colon cancer at age 30, just one of many cases in a community dubbed a "cancer village." No wonder. The local river used for drinking and irrigation is polluted with carcinogens from nearby iron-ore mining operations that have gone on for decades.

For the average viewer, this is a troubling story. But then, a bit later, the scene shifts to New York, where Cooper submits to a "body burden assessment" — a complex, comprehensive blood test measuring the presence of 246 synthetic chemicals. Weeks pass while Cooper's blood is analyzed. Then he learns, not happily, that he tested positive for more than 100 of those chemicals, including the long-banned carcinogens DDT and PCBs.

No worries, says the president of the American Chemistry Council in an interview: "Just because we find chemicals in the body doesn't mean that it causes disease."

Maybe not. But, as Cooper notes, no one knows for sure what the health implications might be. Questions far outstrip any research to answer them. This is how Tuesday's installment ends.

"I wanted each night's episode to end up at home," Moore explained. "The fact that bad things are happening in faraway places doesn't make them any less important. But I wanted to make sure that the issues don't feel too removed from the viewer's everyday life."

No doubt about it: "Planet in Peril" has an up-close-and-personal global reach. Its immediacy can be measured in the blood flowing through the veins of one of its reporters.

Kurds and Turks...Kooks and Turds

Looks like we are heading for a conflict between the Kurds and Turkey. Can anyone say $100 a barrell oil and $3.50 a gallon gas soon? Here it comes.

Turkey (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels killed 17 Turkish soldiers and wounded 16 others in an ambush on Sunday, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks to consider a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq. The attack, the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after Turkey's parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerrillas hiding there.

"We are very angry. ... Our parliament has granted us the authority to act and within this framework we will do whatever has to be done," an ashen-faced Erdogan told reporters. Senior military and government officials began the crisis talks on Sunday evening at the presidential palace in Ankara under President Abdullah Gul to plot Turkey's response.

Band of the Week - THE BLOW

The band of the week is THE BLOW. You need to check them out. Ironically it's not even really a band. It's basically Khaela Maricich, a fabulously talented artist. Her lyrics are simple yet borderline brilliant if I must say so.

Check out The Blow at their myspace page. There are 4 songs available there to sample as well as a clever 50 questions about the band by Khaela. The Blow also has its website at The Blow

Check out The Ecoist Abode

Everyone interested in perserving our environment and green ideals should check out The Ecoist Abode . It's a wonderful source of information and ideas on everything from global warming to organic foods and going green. Come share your ideas, learn and post a comment or two!

The Ecoist Abode

Welcome to Mull This Over

Welcome to my personal blog. This is where I'll post all kinds of thoughts and ideas for you to "mull over"!

Thought for the day --- Well done to the US mens soccer team that won in Switzerland yesterday. We played alot of youngsters like Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela and Maurice Edu. They pulled through and grabbed a rare win for the US on European soil. Read about it at
Soccer Mogul .