Surprise: No Bailout

The people spoke out, and for once, their representatives listened and voted per their constituencies' will. But, why are they surprised that the American people did not want to spend their money bailing out the businesses and corporations that have been raping them all along?

Those businesses get the average citizen going and coming: We are paying for them to be in business when we buy their products or services, when we pay tax on those products and services that the businesses don't, when we pay local taxes that end up going to businesses as incentives, when we pay our utilities, when we work for minimum wage to make them rich, when we apply for credit for purchases and then end up with hefty interest rates and finance charges, and on and on. Now they are worried that we didn't want to pay them for screwing up so badly that they are crumbling?  Who cares?  I don't. You want us to yell foul when one of us applies for welfare, but it's OK if businesses demand welfare to pay for their mistakes? Get real.

I think it would be a not-so-bad idea if the whole system crumbled so that a less greedy and hopefully more equitable system can be built to replace it. Let the stock market collapse all the way. I doubt we'd see much of a change anyway. Cudos to the House for doing their job.

New Crisis: Chocolate Threatened!

If you think stress levels are high now, wait until you hear this. The bad news is that Indonesia has found unusually high levels of melamine in Cadbury Asia Pacific Chocolate products and has ordered every last bit of it removed from stores. Melamine, added to milk by suppliers, is an industrial chemical high in nitrogen that fools protein quality tests on watered down milk. A UK site called The Sun (which I will not link to because of a burst of popups that got through Firefox's barriers and where I found this yummy photo of chocolate) said that Cadbury is planning to cut 500,000 jobs worldwide in another cost-saving restructure, but there was no mention of the melamine tainted chocolate. In a relatively controlled panic, I headed over to the FDA web site to see if any recalls of the chocolate were issued here in the US. No chocolate warnings, but the FDA issued an advisory on Sept. 26 that said that melamine was found in Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products. That will be another crisis if they find the chemical in Maxwell House or Folgers! I'll let you know. In the meantime, unless we are now importing milk from China, which wouldn't surprise me, I'll stick with Hershey's Chocolate.

Goodbye Paul Newman

The legendary Paul Newman died this morning of cancer at his home in Westport, Conn.at the age of 83. Thanks for entertaining us all these years, Paul. It won't be the same without you.