Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Quote of the Day

It's not an actual quote for today, but a notable comment from Matt Groening's character Montgomery Burns, "I'd give it all away for just a little more".

That seems to be the credo of Henry Paulson and other gazillionaires driving the bailout of America's financial institutions. You may recall last year when progressive in Congress tried in vain to procure $8Billion for children's health care, that was shot down, can't panic the bond markets. Now the banks are in crisis, spare no expense, hundreds of billions of your dollars are being passed out like party favors with no guarantees that the money will be employed in the public interest.

Here's a question for you, if the failure of banks and various institutions is such a crisis, and may require a stimulus package of as much as $7 TRILLION ( about half the GNP ) to be thrown at it, why not just nationalize them and see if we can get some oversight for crying out loud!? The same goes for our critical industries such as the Big 3 automakers ( if they were nationalized maybe we'd see fuel efficient vehicles manufactured in this country someday ). Airlines are sure to fail, but other transportation modes are of more concern, specifically shipping. The railroads are more important than any of the institutions that are getting all the attention now, indeed, neglecting this vital linkage would be a serious national security risk.

I'm not saying that these businesses should be confiscated, government can and does seize or commandeer private property in emergencies from time to time, but public interest demands that any bailout funds must be administered responsibly. At this point I can't detect the transparency you'd like to have in this process. So, where is the money going?   

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Prismatic Clouds

I saw these clouds just before sundown, this type of cloud is at a high altitude and composed of ice crystals, that's how the sunlight is diffracted, creating the prismatic effect.                                                                             

As usual, click on the images to enlarge.