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!

Last Rose Of Summer

It is the first week of September, yet things are still blooming. MP's garden is yielding a cornucopia of pointy tomatoes and miniature purple peppers. We are still sleeping in the living room while the insurance companies and condo association bicker over who's going to pay for the repairs.

CP had an audition in Asheville yesterday so I went along and we brought Bo. Bo did his best to imitate the nervous pumpkin toy. Bo isn't used to urban noise, of which Asheville has an abundance. On any Saturday in Asheville the streets are full of poets, musicians, biker gangs, big buses , dancing stoned-out hippies, twenty year old adolescents on BMX bikes, strollers etc. The audition lasted 2 hours so by the time we were done Bo was a wreck. Every time I went to put a quarter in the parking meter Bo tried to jump in the car window.

I think I overheated my i-Pod during one of my sun bathing sessions. It played but the screen was just a a bunch of shaky lines. I called BP and he told me it was toast, which is what I expected. I did my usual quick fix; slam it on the desk a few times and try to reformat it. Nothing seemed to work but today it worked just along enough for me to get my stuff back on it and I thought it was fixed, but now the screen is blank again. Basically without the screen it's a big i-Pod Shuffle like CP's. I can't stand her Shuffle because you have to hunt for the music you want. I'm pretty i-Pod dependant so I'll probably get a refurbished 3rd generation Nano. I can't stand this throw away society. Maybe I'll try soaking it in WD-40.

Hi-Pro Bo

Bo was happy eating Purina Beneful (healthy weight-lean cusine). Then I heard of a free trial offer for Purina One. The commercial raves about how your dog will have more energy, a glossier coat and stronger bones, etc. Now formerly our dogs thrived on Wal-Mart's Old Roy dog food. However, at obedience class I was embarrassed to admit that I fed this bargain basement swill to Bo.

So I got my free 4 lb. bag of Purina One. Yes, I took the Purina One challenge. Now I have a dog that acts like he's on crack. It's like Bo is 8 months old again. I can't wait till I use this up and get "Slow, Low-Pro, AARP" Bo back.

Big Education

I found this piece by Walter Williams that discusses a few of the problems of higher education. I have seen many people who are talked into college only to end up with a useless degree and fifty thousand dollars of education loans. Most of them work at "Old Navy".

The students think the schools care about them, when really all they want is government money. These poor saps go into programs like "construction management" and truly believe that when they finish Donald Trump is going to put them in charge of his next project. It reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield in "Back To School" telling the class what it really takes to start a business:

"First of all you're going to have to grease the local politicians for the sudden zoning problems that always come up. Then there's the kickbacks to the carpenters, and if you plan on using any cement in this building I'm sure the teamsters would like to have a little chat with ya, and that'll cost ya. Oh and don't forget a little something for the building inspectors. Then there's long term costs such as waste disposal. I don't know if you're familiar with who runs that business but I assure you it's not the boyscouts."

Students should realize if they are pursuing a liberal arts degree the result will be hopefully a broader education and not some mythical advantage in the general workforce. Fifty per cent of a college degree today is just giving you what you missed in public high school. In 1969 SUNY guaranteed every high school graduate a place in college. Back then I thought it was a joke; some of my high school friends couldn't even tie their shoes. If you were a member of the parish you got a desk in the Catholic high school. I think it was Rockefeller that decided that even though you couldn't write your name in the ground with a stick, you were college material.

Instead of investigating Big Oil Congress should investigate Big Education.

Marianne is going to France and all I get is this dumb hat!

I was feeling so good a few minutes ago; now I see that MP is leaving. This isn't a home, it's a Youth Hostel. Along with all this, I'm now sleeping in the living room because of a leaky roof.
It's all to much for me, I have to lie down. I just saw MP put the black bra in her suitcase.


This is Dreidal. She is a ten month old Welsh Terrier up for adoption. This means she probably has more psychological problems than me. I really don't think a new little sister will get me out of my funk; I just like the toy she's holding in her mouth.