NEWS: Great Depression 2: the Reckoning

*Posted October 10, 2008*

You hear a lot of talking heads projecting doom and gloom for the American people, and we really need to listen, because they are probably right. We as a country have shit credit, no money to lend, a volatile stock market, government bailing out banks and businesses (and states, soon), and foreign investors running to the hills. We all need to face it. Our loser government never bothered to level and warn us of these tough times. It's not like they didn't see the collapse of Freddie and Fannie coming. How funny is it that at the beginning of the year, the government was encouraging us to spend our stimulus checks when it was our refusal to save that got us into this mess. I'm going to get a little preachy here, so if you want to skip down to clips of South Park, go right ahead. The main problem is the American dream that everyone loves believing in. The problem is that this dream is something that people expect even when they haven't earned it. In the good old days, you worked your ass off to save up money for a house because you absolutely needed 20% down our you couldn't buy it. People did own their first home until their thirties! Now, thanks to Barnie Frank and the dicks at Freddie and Fannie, people were buying houses with NO MONEY DOWN! HOW INSANE IS THAT?!? So why would they care that a year into their mortgage they don't feel like paying? It's not like they had much invested in it anyway. Back to the Great Depression. Did you know that during our Great Depression, the entire world market was going through a depression? Did you know that ours was the only one considered Great, and that's thanks to FDR New deal? His policies prolonged the Depression, and his ideology is right in line with big spending Barack Obama. Wow this is depressing. Bring on the TV news, please.

News of the weird (brought to you by newsoftheweird.com)

People With Too Much Time on Their Hands

In December 2003, Yves Julien worked a regular 11-hour shift, plus overtime, all at premium pay, for the Canada Border Services Agency, and then demanded an additional $9 (Cdn) for a sandwich he had purchased when asked to put in the extra hours. The agency said he was not entitled, by contract, because the overtime was already at premium pay. In September 2008, after nearly five years of multiple reviews, hair-splitting legal decisions and lengthy appeals, Julien won his $9. [Globe and Mail, 9-10-08]