I knew that. From Chris D. in recent comments: Maker Faires. Cool idea. Idiots. Savages. Liver disease. It’s not just for alcoholics any more. Arty Bollocks Generator. 🙂 Debt freedom = opportunity. Nice personal story. Westboro Baptist Church comes picketing. Target offers donuts. Great attitude.
Category: Money
Posts about being frugal, getting out of debt, staying out of debt, spending practically and splurging joyfully. This category may also contain posts about hard money and what the government is doing to all that “soft money” it creates.
Optimism? Optimism? Does that preposterous word dare raise its head around here — again??? And in association with matters economic? Never fear. I know nobody in these parts is as blind as Bernanke or as oblivious as Obama. Is the economy going straight to hell? Yes, of course it is. Are things likely to get worse long before they get better? You can bet your six-gallon superpails of hard red winter wheat on it. Are your children’s futures in peril? Oh my. Will politicians continue to try to “cure” the economic poison they administered with ever-higher doses of the same…
DNA-based diets for health and fitness. (Tip o’ hat to PT.) The NY Times calls it dysfunction. Doesn’t it seem more like innovation to you? “Stray Cat Strut.” How one dedicated cat lady beat the IRS. Wendy McElroy: “The Next American Revolution Won’t Be Like the First.” Yep, I think we can count on that. 🙂 Via Ammoland. Alan Korwin and Mark Moritz present: “Sunshine Gun Laws.” This has been around quite a while, but it’s good for a little Monday cheer.
I said I was going to de-focus on bad news and its attendant blogistic knee-jerking. But once in a while the reality checks are too stunning to ignore. Here’s how bad it’s getting: The U.S. Department of Education sends a S.W.A.T team to kick down a door and terrorize a family — for defaulted student loans. (NOTE: Original link is now 404. Thanks to dsd in the comments, here’s another link, with photos. Check his other links, too.) Facebook is at it again. Keep your photos OUT of Facebook, guys. How you’re going to prevent Granny or your best buddy…
This is a follow-up to last week’s “Middle-Class Shrug” blog. —– We hear about economic “pressure on the middle class.” Business media tell us the middle class is being squeezed. Popular media try to break our hearts with profiles of couples who have fallen out of the middle class and into desperation. But the picture they paint is incomplete and distorted. The “squeezed” mostly remain an abstraction. The “fallen” families beloved of the media are, as often as not, a misrepresentation; they’re usually folk who made dumb decisions (mostly by buying houses they couldn’t afford at prices they should have…
I hesitate to ask this question because I’ve found that when speaking from voice of experience, you guys are brilliant. But when we’re talking hypotheticals … well, we’re talking hypotheticals and sometimes all of us merely repeat freedomista cliches. But here’s the question: What do you think you’d do in a hyperinflation? I’m not talking about some post-apocalyptic George Romero scenario where starving urbanites are crawling through your windows in search of your stash of freeze-dried potato dices and fruit galaxy. I’m talking about getting along — as people did in Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, and most other places when their…
In case you missed this … I usually take these things with a grain of salt. We’ve just seen a lovely example of how embarrassingly fallible predictions of doom can be. But John Williams of Shadowstats is the very definition of credibility, so it’s worth taking a new look at his most recently updated predictions for hyperinflation. In a word, he says: SOON. Within the year. Here’s Silver’s take on Williams’ report. And Williams’ report in full. —– Have you also noticed that we’re hearing the term “stagflation” again — meaning an economy that’s going nowhere while prices soar? Well,…
And the joys of a bad neighborhood in a bad economy Saturday May 14 is Give Your Stuff Away Day — or at least one earnest man hopes it will be. That’s the day he urges you to haul your excess stuff (or at least a politically correct and safety-checked assortment of it) to the curb and simply give it away to anybody who wants it. It’s not the political correctness that’ll keep me from participating. It’s the fact that I spring-cleaned my garage today, shoved the best of the gleanings to the front, put up “FREE STUFF” signs —…
I’m headed to another town to pick up a foster dog. I’m not ready for this. I told the local group I’d start fostering this summer, but things have been so unsettled I was considering ways to weasel out of my commitment. This is such a sad case, though. I couldn’t say no. The incoming dog is a nine-year-old who’s bouncing back to the group because a placement made six years ago has gone sour. The dog, a female black Lab mix, was very much loved. Then the adopter had babies, and “Betsy” never took to them. Eighteen months ago,…
In the Mothers Day spirit: 11 Awwww-Inspiring Surrogate Moms. Mozilla says “NO” to the DHS. Wonder how that’ll work out. Good for Billings Gazette readers. Boohiss to Best Buy for firing an employee who did the right thing. The 10 secret warning signs of inflation. 🙂 So what do you think happened to silver last week? And where’s silver going from here? Torture: “Still Stupid, Still Wrong, Still Immoral.” The only thing wrong with Dahlia Lithwick’s opinion is that she doesn’t state it emphatically enough. “The Emperors’ Clothes.” A heartrending cry as Pakistanis wake up to their governmental catastrophe, post…