I'de trade my 401K for a gallon of gas.

I should have picked up 3 gallons of gas on my way home from the airport. There still isn't any gas in western N.C. The colleges have closed, businesses are empty, armed people are camped out in filling stations waiting for that police-escorted gas truck. Our sub-prime government officials are right on top of the crisis. The governor blames a lack of liquidity in the storage facilities caused by Hurricane Ike. That was three weeks ago. The voters are going to orchestrate a leveraged vote out in November.

Matching Luggage

Do you think the TSA will let me take these on the plane back to Asheville? Seeing that there isn't any gas in the region.

By the way: Has anybody seen my butt?

"I'm going to stop the engine of the world"

This was the cry of John Galt in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Anyone who hasn't read this book should do so ASAP. The looters in Washington are now taking over our 401 K's, health care and investment markets. We are being TOLD we have to bail out their sorry asses. I say no way. Let it all collapse and we can start over. This band-aid will just postpone the inevitable. America's chickens are coming home to roost.

By the way, it is now nine days that we in western N.C. haven't had any gasoline. There isn't anybody concerned about the ozone hole while they are waiting in gas lines. These same bureaucrats want us to buy their stinking bad paper to the tune of a trillion dollars. Somebody should be going to jail, better yet bring back the guillotine.

KEEP BAILING!

Seventy billion dollars to bail out Freddie and Fannie.



It looks like this poor working schmo has to bend over again.








Biden says paying taxes is patriotic










That's $100,000 per person, yikes!




Freddie, Fannie, are you feeling lucky
TODAY?

My idea to save General Motors.

I just drove Ben's 93 Olds Cutlass Supreme back from D.C. I can't believe what a great car it is. It has 160K miles on it. The first 86K miles were put on by a West Virginia teenager so it wasn't babied or well-maintained. The only repair (besides routine stuff) has been a blown intake manifold gasket, $500.

This sweet little V-6 gets 30 mpg, has plenty of grunt and turns at a leisurely 2,200 rpm's at 70 mph. The A/C is the best I've ever had. I replaced the standard cassette/radio with a Crutchfield Pioneer 180 watt am/fm stereo cd. Then there is that beautiful floaty ride; it's like going down the Interstate on a Shiatsu flying sofa.

Except for air-bags what else has GM been doing since 1993? They got rid of their most profitable division, Oldsmobile, and brought us such great cars as the Pontiac Aztec. I think if GM can retool and produce a million Olds Cutlass's and sell them each for $13,000 they could kick some butt against the rice-burners from the land of Nipon.

The Olds is now home in my stable where it can live out its remaining years with dignity. I have a selfish reason for wanting GM to pull out of its "graveyard spiral". I'm thinking that any day now I might become a co-owner of GM. Since GM is so big we can't let it fail. There will be another government bailout. A week ago who would have thought I'd be co-owner in the world's second largest insurance company, AIG? Who'd a thunk it?

Babba's Book Notes

A Walk In The Woods:

This is a great book. It's about an older guy who decides to hike the Appalachian Trail. MP read it in about four hours, but it took me a week. It's not a pot boiler but just a pleasant excursion into a world few of us will ever see. It became preachy in a few spots but aside from those few chapters it was quite funny. The people he finds along away are just so authentic it hearkens you back to a simpler time before we all started taking ourselves so serious. ***


The Unthinkable:

I saw the author Amanda Ripley on C-Span. I was so impressed with her interview I requested her new book The Unthinkable. I'm only about half way through it but I can't put it down. The book looks at natural and man made disasters and tries to analyze the human responses. It is a pleasant read and doesn't repeat the original thesis chapter after chapter. It also doesn't read like a graduate school thesis, yet isn't as inane as usual disaster manuals eg; " How to Survive Being Trapped In An Automat." I think Ben would like it since she uses some scenarios from the Foreign Service. ****

My Waiting List:

Well, after a month on the waiting list I've moved from #23 to #16. I do prefer non-fiction but this book is getting such a buzz I have to check it out. ?????

Running On Empty

No, that's not my coronary artery. It's Hurricane Ike tearing up the gulf. Which means the last truckload of gas was delivered to western N.C. on Thursday. The Hooterville Times-News announced this on their front page Friday morning causing a stampede of senior citizens in their Town Cars to the pumps. I'm lucky I filled up on Wed. for $ 3.57/gal before the price started going up 30 cents/hr. At least it has improved the traffic situation around Asheville. Tonight CP and I are going to stay home and play cards.


Monday the condo association has its quarterly meeting. They will vote on which bid to accept to fix our bedroom after the Hurricane Fay roof leak. I'm sure they will take the lowest bid. Thursday the contractors Chico and Fernando came by to take measurements. They assured CP that when they were done the room would look the same as it did before the leak.

I need to go, it's getting late. I have to go sit outside with my gun and make sure no one siphons my gas!