Plumbing the economy

I've been neglecting the blog for plumbing. I've spent two days digging out a waste line and replacing some water valves. Then I've been feeding the stock, which takes more time when snow and cold takes over the Osage Cuestas.

I've also been plumbing other people's computers. I figured it would be a way to exploit the bad economy--fixing and upgrading older computers people would have simply replaced a few months ago. I contemplated starting my own bank holding corporation to snag increasingly worth-less federal bailout dollars. It is more fun to fix other people's virus-infected computers, however.

A man came by this morning inquiring about a pickup-truck load of old horse manure for a garden. He inquired about composition, quality and price. I told him I'd charge $20, which seems reasonable because I'd have to take the bale fork off the tractor to put on the bucket. He said he might come back next weekend if he didn't find manure at another place. I think he wants perfect, free shit. Could that be why the economy turned to crap in the first place?

Maureen didn't receive the memo.

Here's a couple of links that will illustrate why the no-longer-mainstream, corporate media are losing revenue, reporting declining audience numbers, and laying off employees.

Maureen Dowd, pictured above while catching up with her reading, witch hunts Sarah Palin in her Nov. 11, New York Times column, Boxers, Briefs or Silks? In a story in the Times' television section the following day, Richard Pérez-Peña illustrates how Ms. Dowd and several other journalists fell for a hoax planted by A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence.

Maureen, the public editor for the Times, Clark Hoyt, should inspect your lingerie stash and all receipts to see if any of it was charged to the corporation or received by you gratuitously. Clark, think about all the fact checkers the paper could hire with the funds it's paying Maureen.

Two bright spots in the economy

McDonald's same-store sales rose 8.3 percent in October, beating its own estimates. Most other restaurants reported declining sales.

Every vendor I've checked are out of stock of Magpul polymer, 20 or 30-round AR-15 magazines and 30-round mil-spec aluminum magazines. And the National Shooting Sports Foundation reports firearms sales are 10 percent higher this fall compared to the last. October sales are 15 percent higher than October 2007. Ammunition sales were up 14.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008 despite price increases caused by a global metals shortage.

Trial lawyers, one of the major blocks of the Democratic Party, have long waged wars on fatty food and guns. I don't see McDonald's and the firearms industry faring too well this time next year. Neither will find love when seeking federal bailouts unlike Detroit's no-longer-big-three automakers and AIG.

In the meantime, the Change Administration is going retro. Obama isn't a socialist--he's a monarchist. He's going to be a king, according to his spokesperson , Valerie Jarrett, who appeared on Meet the Press yesterday.



Ms. Jarrett is "the other side of" President-elect Obama's "brain", believe it or not.