Patriot's Day Pissed Off

You know there are all kinds of topics I think about during the day that I want to comment about, rant over or just toss up for thought and consideration. But then things happen like sick kids sneeze in the same neighborhood where you live, you buy a new cell phone device or feel like writing soft core porn, and these other issues seem to fall to the background of importance. Well, today I am making my stand. This is important enough to me I will forgo watching internet porn and go into the office late (since the Director is out sick) and create this awesomely ubber important must read post, just for you.

First, from the world of high finance: I have not seen any of the blogs commenting on the fall of Fannie May and Freddie Mack Daddy. Sure I am no financial sexpert here, but it seems to me this is something everybody ought to be aware of, pissed off about and questioning what the fuck is going on man!

When Bush took office, over 100,000 LIVES ago, he and his cronies pushed for and got Banking deregulations. In essence, they agreed to scrap the old formula Banks have used since the 1930s so bankers could increase profit off of your hard earned savings accounts. But what Bush and company did was they upped the amount a person could borrow based on income. So that rather than having a nice home and a car as well as food for the family and a workable budget, they created predatory type loans that would seek out the greedy that live beyond their means or try to live off a projected future income. The end result was people who started off with payments they thought could withstand, soon found themselves deeper and deeper in debt, because the numbers just wont work once you go beyond the old formula!

Then they had the added disadvantage that there were MILLIONS of people in the same sinking bankruptcy boat, and that was driving the prices of homes down so that the Million dollar house they never could afford was now worth half as much as they paid. And when I say millions of people, this is not an exaggeration, it is estimated the US Banking industry handed out over a trillion dollars in bad loans. A TRILLION!!!

I want to be perfectly clear here. I have no idea how much is a trillion. I mean it! I have an advanced degree, I have even taught math (again to the parents of those children, I want to apologize, it was wrong of me, I will never teach a subject I don't understand again) I do know that if you grab your basic 6th grader and count every hair on the top of his/her head you wont even come close to one million. You might find lice, chewing gum, spit balls, or indications of a perverted uncle that needs some time in prison, but you will not find one million hairs. In fact you would have to count every individual hair on the head of about seven 6th graders to end up with a million. That, my friend is a lot of hair. How many heads would make a billion? Shocked yet at the sheer enormity yet? I have no idea now hairy you have to get to find a trillion hairs, but there is a chance there are not a trillion hairs in all the public school systems nation wide.

Not impressed? That's because you didn't make the connection Bubba. Are you picturing all the hair we just discussed? Ok now replace each hair on each individual head of all the kids in the national public school system with a one dollar bill. That's how much money were are talking about!

Now let's look at another threat we can face, as a nation over this. We know the dollar is getting weaker. But did you know all your savings are now at risk? Sure you put them in CDs at FDIC insured banks in groups of less than $100,000. But did you know when the FDIC was created they never thought of numbers as large as a trillion? So the FDIC has reserves for a financial cluster fuck, but the reserves are only about 500 billion... or half of what is needed. So when the banks start to fall... when Leymans and others start pitching their tents there will be a run on banks as people rush, like they did in California, to withdraw their life's savings. And more banks will begin to close.

Because your bank doesn't magically produce more money when you collect your 1% interest off of your life's savings. They have to share it with other banks who invest it in business deals that have a formula in place to statistically assure a reasonable return. Yes, your money was sent to Fannie May and Freddie Mack to help make house loans that were handed out after Bush changed the risk charts because his political backers make a percentage off each loan. Bush got his huge political party endorsement, the business dudes make a personal profit and you lose everything you and maybe your parents ever saved. Fair trade, right? That's what these guys are all about, fair trade. Don't you feel it was a fair trade?

Oh the kicker on this deal... As we find out about all the improprieties and the need for the US Government to seize both lending institutes we find out the executives at both Fannie May and Freddie Mack got Multi-Million Dollar buy-outs for the remainder of the CEO Contracts. And IF the institutions can be saved, it will all be on the tab of the US Tax payer. Toss it all on the deficit! That huge bill that is mounting right now because of mismanagement and ill advice from greedy inside advisers. How much is that 2.4% interest rate on your CD worth? Do you still think YOU are getting a fair trade in this deal?

Now quickly on sports. I want to discuss Vince Young. I saw this guy kick ass while at Texas. He is maybe the greatest athlete I have ever seen next to John Elway. Don't get me wrong, I have never been an Elway fan, but there was no denying he was the best athlete in combination of skill, poise, and ability to win. I saw Vince Young pick up a defeated Texas Team and by sheer will win the national championship. AT the time it looked like he did it single handedly, carrying the exhausted and outplayed Longhorns on his back.

Vince has had a hard transition into the NFL. This league is hard for anybody, but Vince is with a new and fairly weak team. He won rookie of the year his first year in, and he took his team to the playoffs last year. But the Al Gore state freakin boos him even when he wins!

I know, I know, oh big deal the multimillionaire has bad words tossed his way. But it is more than that. This guy is still a kid. He's probably less than 25 years old. If he was my kid, he would probably still be covered by my health insurance as a dependent. He is facing all of the stress and challenges we all faced in becoming adults, but he is in the spot light 24/7 because he can run and throw a ball.

The stress is too great for most hardened adults. Vince Young, with winning credentials behind him is considering walking away from football. He is near the end of his rope. The stress and the realization he can't do it on his own based on his physical abilities is about to do him under.

We hear all the time about the stress we place on kids for athletics. We assume we are talking about kids with overbearing parents or coaches. But here, the monsters are the fans and the press. Yeah, the monsters are the ones who love the game. They are all placing an undo amount of pressure on a kid that NOT ONE OF US would think twice about if he was living in his parents basement, playing video games and smoking pot. It just ain't fair.