Festive day at the beach

Hot Mama came up from N.C. with Edamame (her black Chihuahua) for a weekend with the boys in DC. Bubba and I welcomed her Saturday afternoon with open arms and freely flowing cocktails. We then jetted over to Butch and the Colonel's for a little BBQ.

Hot Mama looked AMAZING in a slinky red Michael Kors dress with wedge heels - her outfit was so now.

Then we got home and had to get ready for the beach. We were day-tripping to Gordon's Pond on Sunday. I got up at the ass-crack o' dawn and fetched Delicate Flower, Shaggy and DF's buddy Miss Band Camp from their Glover Park pad. We returned to Takoma for staging and got on the road at 8:30-ish.

I had rented a little Tater Tot (a brown car that looked fairly squarish - like a tater tot) and the boys rode with me and Bubba drove Hot Mama's Miata. He looked pretty good driving it too.

Anyways we stopped halfway for drinks, snacks and mags. We got the Enquirer, Us Weekly, Life and Style, Star, Men's Health and a Hustler. The Hustler was a big hit. DF noted that there were lots of functional pre-op trannies in Hustler....Not what I was expecting but you never know what people are REALLY into.

We got to the beach in the nick of time, only a few parking spots left. We trudged through the sand and found a nice open spot on the gay beach near the big concrete things. Shaggy and Miss Band Camp had yet to see the Atlantic and this was their maiden beach voyage to a sandy Atlantic Beach. Towels and umbrellas were arranged and everyone settled in for an afternoon of sun. Shaggy had a delightful Florida print bathing suit that was somewhere between square cut and a banana hammock - loved it.

While there were lots of gay guys, Gordon's Beach tends to attract an older crowd. But there were some hotties mixed in.

Hot Mama got to see some of the different segments of gay life that are hidden from straight people's view...of particular note was a pair of TOTALLY 'roided out bear walking in tiny speedos down the beach hand in hand. Miss Band Camp enlighted us on what the new term for a gut sagging over a speedo is called - a "muffin top" (love Miss Band Camp).

DF and I were getting restless in the afternoon so we started throwing around the rugby ball. Some hottish guys walked by and Eric takes the ball and throws it straight at the hottest guy's head. We got a invite to the Blue Moon for drinks with them at Tea Time (While Shaggy is called Trouble, DF IS trouble).
When the rugby ball got tired, we decided to do yoga on the beach (Hot Mama can twist herself into a pretzel). So DF and I were doing yoga poses - it was fun. By this point everyone around us was watching to see what we would do next. Which was cartwheels on the beach judged by Bubba and Miss Band Camp. I (thank you) won the single cartwheel with a 9.0! I think that Shaggy won the double cartwheel contest.

At this point, Big Box Couple (a couple in very tight red speedos with two very large boxes) had turned their chairs to watch us intently. Bubba called a cock-ring/Viagra fluffage but I think it was just two guys with really big packages.

Well the wind kicked up at 4pm and we packed up. Bubba wanted a beer so we drove over to Baltimore Av for a cocktail at Aqua (a deck bar right up from the Blue Moon). Aqua was slow at 5pm - so we had a beer. I then looked at traffic (mess) and we decided to stay and have dinner so we had a few more cocktails and then went to a small Cajun style restaurant across from Aqua.

While we were at Aqua, DF noted that Umberto was flitted about the bar. DF met him at Stoney's and Umberto showed DF his package in the bar and said he was straight. I told you, DF is trouble. Well we all kinda laughed about it until DF found Umberto's number in his cell phone. I told DF to call him and tell Umberto that Flash says hi (I was wearing my Flash Gordon shirt). So DF texts Umberto "Flash says hi". We played a little cat and mouse, but Umberto never came over.

One thing that we all noted that was fun - plaid is back and looking better than ever. The Aqua bartenders had cute little plaid bathing suits on that matched in yellow, orange and turquoise - we all like orange's hair, yellow's face and turquoise's body.

When we got back to the car, traffic was gone and we jetted back. All in all - a great day!

Why be a liberal

I think that the comment left on my blog about Liberals and God sums up the current Democratic Party - except I would substitute liberal/liberalism with Democrat or Democratic Party:

I reject the belief that the future is better than the past is the definition of liberalism.

Liberalism seems to thrive of doomsday paranoid prospects such as the shaky science of global warming etc.

I find that conservatives have a better outlook for the future even when confronting a gloomy world forecast such as terrorism.

I find modern liberalism to be defined by a sense of paranoid victim hood of self loathing emotional lemmings.

I do NOT think that the current leadership in either party is loyal to its true core beliefs.

Some small examples of how things have changed:
The Democratic Party caters to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson while the Republican Party catered to Jerry Falwell and caters to Dobson.

The Democratic Party uses global warming hysteria (Al Gore) and the Republican Party uses gay marriage hysteria(Ann Coulter).

This is a radical departure for both parties in that they are using media whores and sideshow acts rather than IDEAS to attract (or repel) voters.

It has inspired me to think of the IDEAS of liberalism from days of yore.

1. Liberalism does have a populist streak without being socialist. Liberalism should acknowledge that the government has a vested role to arbitrate between the various factions of society (i.e. business, military, the public, etc). This role of arbitration derives primarily from the voters as these are actual people. This is what happened in the 2006 midterm elections - the people spoke and the Democratic Party has NOT acted for the people - the Democrats are REALLY fucking up right now.

2. Liberalism should acknowledge that while businesses are made up of people, they are indeed not people. Businesses do not vote. Businesses should have limited role in setting policy - for, in a democracy, the people will make the decision of how to set regulations by voting. Democrats are whoring themselves to K Street just as avidly as the Republicans are and there is no evidence that the voters are controlling businesses - rather it seems to be the other way around.

3. Liberalism should acknowledge that in order for each person to do his or her civic duty, they must be educated. The basis for a free and universal education is this: the more educated the citizens are, the stronger the Republic will be. The Democratic Party panders WAY TOO MUCH here to the teacher's unions and Dept of Education instead of the parents of the kids who have to go to public school.

4. Liberalism should acknowledge that there are inequalities in the country. But those inequalities should never hinder a person's chance to succeed. Equal access to equivalent educational opportunities is the mandate to attempt to mitigate the effects of actual inequality. Here the Democratic Party has really failed - totally and completely.

The main points of liberalism are simple and can be translated easily to anyone. Liberalism is about fairness and equality which is arbitrated by the government and the government is controlled by the voters. At its core, liberalism holds that the country we get is the country we vote for. If the country shuns the value of education for TV and shuns the entrepreneurial system of small business for Wal-Mart and cowers in fear of corporations instead of controlling this horrible globalization effort - the country will get what it deserves. Collapse.

Neither the Democrats or Republicans are working for the common man. The term "liberal" is now one of slander based upon my limited encounters with talk radio....liberal is just like commie or homosexual or socialist or populist. I say the Democrats should take back the discussion of ideas and take on the Republicans by using the traditional liberal views. The Democrats have their mandate - it is time to start using that power!

Liberals and God

I have had several lengthy comments about my Falwell entry. It reminded me that liberals and Christian organizations are not that different but the people who those organizations are purported to represent are as different as night and day.

1. Having grown up in and gone to church 3-4 days a week for most of my juvenile years, (and it was not just church - it was Southern Baptist) and then going to college and rejecting Christ as a total and complete farce, I can safely say that Christian people and liberal people share very few features. My commenter felt that Christians are the last acceptably persecuted class - particularly by liberals. I would argue that Christian organizations and liberals are VERY similar and operate on a shared set of principles. But Christian people and liberal people are not.

1. Few liberals I know hate God. For one, these organizations don't believe in Him which makes hating Him logically difficult. But in actuality, they hate what mortals do in His name. (NOTE: The bumper sticker "Jesus, protect me from your followers" comes to mind). Kinsey-1 pointed out one central problem that many liberals have with Christianity which is their churches/organizations are tax free money sluices for conservative causes. But liberals have no comparable slush fund. Jerry Falwell was not Mother Theresa and let us all keep that in the front of our mind. Jerry Falwell was preaching hate and bigotry, not because he believed those stances personally, rather these sermons spoke to the masses, delivered votes, and expanded his power base. Christian organizations force us to deal with them because they won't leave their beliefs at the pulpit - which is where they belong. Christian organizations (much like liberals) are constantly trying to get the Federal government to impose their will. And you can look at my previous blog entries to note that I think that using the judiciary to solve problems, that the legislative and executive branches should solve, is fundamentally wrong. Some silly Christian things might include, abstinance-only education, putting the Ten Commandments in court houses, giving tax money in the form of vouchers to fund an inferior religious education, churches are tax free organizations, and so on.

Bottom line: Christian organizations work the system as bad as, if not worse than, any liberals. Christian organizations feed at the Federal money trough so heavily and intently that it makes welfare mothers driving a Cadillac blush.

2. We live in a secular country. We were founded as a secular country. We should operate by a shared secular set of core beliefs. Any Christian organization who is going to talk about how this country is Judeo-Christian (I love how the Jews always get the first part of the hyphen but are only 1-2% of the country's population) needs to address what Christian values were being implemented when Andrew Jackson offered rewards to people to shoot Indians in the 1820s, they might wonder what Christian prinicples allowed slavery, which Christian principles allowed for the Japanese to be interred in concentration camps, which Christian principles were at work during Jim Crow years, which Christian principles were in place for the vast and expansive discrimination against Jews during most of this Republic's existence, the practical enslavement of Chinese to build railroads, the practical enslavement of the Mexicans who do migratory farm work, etc etc etc.

Bottom line: If the country was TRULY Christian, these sorts of events would never happen. If we are a secular country (which we are), these evils are easily explained.

My view is that if you are a Christian, you are a Christian all week long. Not only on Sunday morning - but Monday through Saturday. You have no idea how many sermons I sat through that offered this as the main tenet. (NOTE: Liberals NEVER pretend to be a conservative). Christians organizations ought to promote love and compassion all day, every day because that is the model Christ laid down.

3. Christian organizations have to recruit people to their wicked lifestyle. I've always admired the Christian organizations for talking about how fags recruit young boys and girls to their cause because they cannot procreate and therefore their wicked ways would die out without fresh blood. I admire this because Christian organizations are criticizing fags for doing the same activities that Christian organizations do.

Somehow when Christians are recruiting for Him it is different than we fags are recruiting him.

Bottom line: Christian organizations have to keep the money rolling in because they need to fund the conservative candidates or hire lobbyists to modify or create legislation to support their belief structures.

When you hear "liberals" on talk radio - please remember that these "liberals" are not individuals, rather they are organizations that promote a certain ideology. "Liberals" operate by the same principles as "churches". This is a whole different ball of wax from thinking about individuals who have a left-leaning belief structure and individuals who think of Christ as their Savior.

Comment about Falwell's death

A comment from my blog about Jerry Falwell's death:

Anonymous said...

What makes gays any better than Fred Phelps terrorizing gay funerals, etc. when they behave this way over Falwell's death?

I am an unabashed liberal. Not the new pansy-ish sort of liberal (e.g. John Kerry, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, etc) but I am proud to say that I am an old-school liberal. Think FDR and Harry Truman merged together and you got my idea of liberalism.

Inherent in that sort of liberalism is a strong populist streak. Which Jerry Falwell had in mind with his Moral Majority. And Jerry Falwell elevated Populism for his own devious purposes.

Sidenote: I just wish that Hell actually did exist so Jerry Falwell could be there with his fat ass popping and crackling in the fire.

My problem with the comment is that Fred Phelps is largely irrelevant in the political scene - he is a side show freak and nothing more in terms of the politic of today (or yesterday for that matter). However Jerry Falwell had political power. (Witness that CNN virtually STOPPED coverage of anything else when it was announced that Jerry Falwell died.) Not only did Jerry Falwell have the power but he USED it. He, and his minions, forced a secular Republican party into difficult conservative moral positions that have populist appeal but make America the pariah of the Western world. Let's think about a few of those:

1. Jerry Falwell was definitely a pro-lifer. Strong advocate that no person should be having an abortion (note supporting quote)

This is probably as bad a day as the court has had on social issues since "Roe v Wade."

And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."

HOWEVER, I do not recall Jerry Falwell speaking out about the fact that PREGNANT WOMEN SMOKE. If you are so worried about the fetus, then send any woman to jail who smokes while pregnant.

2. Jerry Falwell had no tolerance for those who are not evangelical (note supporting quote):

If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.

That just speaks for itself.

3. Jerry Falwell used gay issues for his own agenda.

AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.

Now I am going to focus on this last quote specifically when thinking about how Fred Phelps and Jerry Falwell are different. In the quote in the third point, just substitute "Jew" or "Negro" and you can see what type of Populism Jerry Falwell was preaching. AND HE WAS A FUCKING CHRISTIAN!!! Jerry Falwell used AIDS as a mark of god's judgement on our society for his own populist political ends. He used people (in the 1980s) who were being digested slowly by bacteria and fungi and covered in lesions to make a political point. These people who were already condemned to a horrible death now became a political prop for Jerry Falwell's populism.

Did Jerry Falwell show any compassion, as Christ would have, for these poor souls?

NO - Jerry Falwell used AIDS sufferers as a way to get more votes, hence, more power. Think about this, you have tens of thousands of young men dying in the 1980s and you cannot get the President to even say the word AIDS until 1987. Part of that is due to Jerry Falwell's socially conservative presence in Republican circles. This man was part of a fundamental shift that took conservatives from a secular, anti-government mindset of Barry Goldwater and pushed them into a Christian populist and activist mold.

Few people today have full-blown AIDS. But if you were to go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and met a person with full blown AIDS, you would be looking at someone who is marked for a excrutiatingly painful death. And the government, with Jerry Falwell's political power, made sure that these people got NO help. None. Zip. Zero. These AIDS suffers got to die with a coating of fungus all down their throat. They died from sepsis. They went blind and suffered dementia. They were the exact sort of person that Christ showed compassion for. But not Jerry. Nope, in his actions he showed that compassion is for pussies.

Fred Phelps is just a warm up for witnessing the true evil that Jerry Falwell embodied because Fred Phelps is protesting people who are already dead. Jerry Falwell, by his political activities, is complicit in the murder of tens of thousands of Americans who had AIDS.

I had a celebratory drink when I found out that Jerry Falwell was dead. He was a horrible human being and a total waste of flesh. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Two sides of the coin

I love comments on the blogs - can be more revealing than the blog itself!

From The Barometer:

Dear God...Iowa
(Idiots Out Walking Around)
Congrats! I don't think I could [do] that. Enjoy those long, cold midwestern winters.

and from Gordo (love the name!!!)

Des Moines has an active gay bar scene - lots of great people and not a lot of attitude. Oh, and it's cheap! I live in DC but travel to that area frequently. You won't miss the district.

I put these comments up because they do represent the two opinions that are going on in my head. I think that Des Moines will be a good place to live and I look forward to NOT being in the District....I didn't even put my Takoma missives in the post yesterday. But I will miss my friends here and, more generally, the East Coast way of living.

When I moved to grad school at UC-Davis, it took me a year to get used to the weather in Northern California (and I was never comfortable with it) and I never got used to the people. I hope that Iowa will not be as severe a change as California was. I plan to make lots of snow angels in the winter and get the NFL package on satellite (the Iowa State wrestlers will need something to watch when I host keg parties for them!!!).

One thing Gordo said is definitely right on the money: Des Moines is CHEAP!

What's going on...

Some of my more loyal readers may have wondered why I have been taking some time between posts. Fear not, I still enjoy my blogging!

The gaps are due to the fact that I have been looking for a new job, which is like having a part-time job.Any spare time that I have has been sucked up in the job hunt.

I presently work at a research institute up in Rockville. It runs like a small version of a University - we have faculty and technicians and post-docs and such - we just lack hot 20 year old undergrad studs walking around. Its a very geeky place and hotties are very few and very far between - but I do enjoy the job and I can secretly geek out at work. Kinsey-1 will confirm that!

My one suggestion to HR to improve the working environment: hire the Maryland wrestling team to have keggers every Friday afternoon in our cafeteria in singlets.

Anyways - I have been on the prowl for a new job since things at the Institute are changing and it was a natural time to start thinking about my next move.

So I found a job! It is for a private company and I will run a lab supervising four researchers. The work sounds very challenging and engaging and they are going to pay me VERY well. Plus I get lots of cool toys to play with in lab AND I continue working in the same area that I have been trained in.

However, there is one small detail about it that is not exactly ideal:

The job is in Iowa.

Alas, I will be packing up Bubba, Linus, Kidogo (the cat) and moving the family to the heartland. Bubba was in open revolt of the idea until I agreed to get him a huge flat screen TV (one like Butch and the Colonel have) along with extensive satellite packages and a man space in the basement. There was some discussion about hiring an Iowa State baseball player to clean house in a jock too. We'll have to see about that one.

Let's just say that Bubba is now actively researching the rental market in Des Moines.

I put alot of consideration into whether this is the right thing to do but Jimbo's recent post (OMG Shoes) covers the main reason why I feel that I had to look outside DC (beyond the fact that there aren't alot of jobs here for plant geneticists): This place is just too damn expensive and I don't want to pay HUGE rent for the rest of my life.

So the Scientist's View will be moving to the Midwest in July. I'm planning to do alot of fun stuff in DC for blog filler in case things in Iowa are a bit slow.

For the weekend:

Saturday-
I'm looking forward to seeing my rugger friends (finally) this weekend. Every weekend this Spring I have been working or traveling or job-hunting so I have not gotten to catch up with my rugger peeps.

Sunday-
Delicate Flower, Hot Mama, Bubba, one of DFs buddies from Colorado , and I are doing a fun day trip to Lewis Beach. Hot Mama has told me that she is wearing a candy apple red bikini! Maybe Cory on the rugby team will go with us since we will need a straight guy to truly admire her bathing suit! Love Cory.

I've gotten too fat to wear my banana hammock so I might go with the hetero baggy shorts look. Bubba has a couple square cut suits to choose from and all make his legs look money.
I haven't a clue what DF will wear (will a thong be able to contain his ample manliness?)...but if he brings his camera - I can post some photos.

I'll be posting regularly again from this weekend on-ward!

Funny

If you want to see some great comments, go to Joe.My.God's entry for Jerry Falwell's death and read the comments.

One of my favorites:
"One down, millions more to go!"

My civic duty

Hi All

I had to go to my parents down south for the Mother's Day weekend, followed by jury duty on Monday. I got seated on a jury and we had trial yesterday and today.

Some minor comments:

1. When trapped in the jury room, Jennifers* should not promptly pull out cell phone and start talking. Worse, Jennifers should not make repeated calls telling every new person the exact same thing that they told the previous caller.
*Jennifer is a term from Jimbo to denote a girl in the city who is so wrapped up in her world that she is oblivious to her surroundings. Jennifers hit you in a crosswalk while talking on their cell phone, Jennifers get drunk and fall on you, Jennifers burn you with their cigarettes, etc.

2. If a woman is wearing a pantsuit, and the pants are fairly tight - I think that is is not the classiest look when you can clearly see her underwear lines. Does not help me to judge the merits of the case when I keep waiting for the fashion police.

3. If Jennifer is going to wear open toes sandals and paint her toe nails, it really looks hideous when her cherry red toes are hanging OVER the front end of her sandal. I actually gasped audibly.

4. If you are a hot cop, you should NOT be wearing baggy pants. When hot, less is more.

5. If you are a hot US Marshall, see item 4.

6. If you need a date (or just some action), just hang around the Jury Lounge. There are more homos in there than in JR's. If you can't get laid at Jury Duty, you should just proclaim yourself a dowager.

7. If you have a chance to sit on a jury, do it. I have found it rather fascinating.

Well I have to go figure out what to wear today for Jury Duty and figure out what to have for lunch down at Gallery Place.

Note - If you are into older cop-types, they are ALL over downtown. The past two days have been delightful with groups of beefy guys in shorts and T-shirts walking together. Its like a Colt video come to life!

More Io

Here Galileo (the satellite) captured a volcano erupting on Io. Very pretty.



Here is Io in B&W. Stunning.



Here is a butte on Io which the lower side has been eroded by an unknown force. Note the striations. The NASA geeks have suspected an avalanche.

Io

Since the weather in summer is feast or famine. I will intersperse the slow weeks with some extraterristrial photos. My father sends me some cools pics from time to time of the planets. He loves Jupiter in particular. I am more of a Saturn fan.

The image above is from one of Jupiter's many moons. This satellite is called Io and it is volcanic and has a very thin atmosphere. Note the pock marked appearence of the surface. The legacy of meteorites bashing your surface for billions of years.

Some people at United Suck Donkey Dix

In the spirit of Jimbo's Donkey Dix columns, I have two particular people I wish to add which are employees at United.

I hope that United has a scanner for blogs looking for negative content. Cause here are two people they need to FIRE.

First person is Mrs. T Smith. That was on her name tag. Not Mrs. Smith nor Teresa Smith (or whatever her first name might be) but Mrs. T Smith. She "works" the counter at United at National Airport.

So I was going for a job interview in Iowa two weeks ago and I get the airport 1.75 hours before my flight (or one and three quarters hours). I had to check in because the company travel agent DID NOT put my frequent flier number on the reservation.

Side bitch: Our corporate travel agents refuse to put my frequent flier number on my reservations for work. Why? Each time I use them, the grant is billed 30 bucks for them NOT to do something. They suck Donkey Dix too.

Anyways, I was going to get checked in early and work on my presentation that I had to give (which went great). Well Mrs. T Smith was in the last hour of her shift, was not happy about being there and her helper had gone on his break for an hour. So for the coach class people, there was only 1 person helping at the counter for one hour. And guess who sat at that counter for one hour waiting for help? Yup, little ol me just needed her to type some strokes on her computer, put me in the system and give me my ticket. Not only did Mrs. T Smith only help 2 people in one hour. One of them was a brother that she pulled out of line and helped immediately - it was so blatant as to be unavoidable in its message. She would not give people their luggage tags. She was eating the whole time. She was talking on the phone. She would disappear in back.

Think about this...you stand for one hour (in new wingtips - I needed to stretch them out) waiting for Mrs. T Smith. Watching her eat. Watching her toss excessive amounts of attitude when someone tried to get her attention. She helped 2 people.

Well finally shift change came and Ana Morales (I think was her name) was the shift supervisor or something like that. She came out and took care of 6 people in 10 minutes. Including me.

Mrs T Smith sux the worst Donkey Dix ever.

I did make my flight and I got cruised by Denny Hastert. Bubba has always said that he was a homo. Well I was wearing my tight jeans, and former Speaker Hastert's eyes were on them.

The second person at United who sux Donkey Dix has no name. I say that because he had the pin for the name tag on his sweater but the actual name tag had long ago fallen off.

Why not take the pin out you asswipe? It is so INCREDIBLY unprofessional to do that. So ghetto. I encountered this paragon of professionalism on the return Chicago to National flight. Big plane and lots of people. Well I am carrying a garment bag for my suit and pressed shirts and such and I ask him to hang it up.

You would have thought I was treating him like a porter. I got "the look" and a snort of disgust that there was nowhere to hang up bags. SO I did what I did on the outbound flight, I hung my bag up on an empty rack behind the last seat in first class. The very nice and professional flight crew on the outbound flight said that I could put it there. Well not only does this paragon of professionalism touch me (he tapped me on the shoulder) but tells me that this empty rack is for first class only and I would have to fold my garment bag up and put it in an overhead bin.

Let me get this straight. On a flight from Chicago to Washington DC, there is no place for a person to hang up their bag of pressed clothes???? Are you fucking kidding me????

Good thing my interview was over and I was returning home so some added wrinkles never hurt.

Paragon of professionalism sux big donkey dix too.

Does anyone know where I can write a letter asking for these two people to be officially reprimanded. I don't want anything from United other than to have these people's performance noted and put into their permanent record.

Had I not flown United many times before, I would have sworn off this airline as racist and arrogant. Not how you want to treat someone who flies regularly and pays full fare and has choices of which airline to fly. So please leave me a comment if you can tell me an inside way to ensure that Mrs. T Smith and the paragon of Professionalism will be disciplined.

A pretty low pressure

This is a satellite image from this morning and if you look of the N.C. coast, you can see the swirl of a low pressure over the gulf stream.

It is not too late in the year for these coastal lows to form. I remember one year (1991 or 1992) we had a very potent nor'easter in late May that left 4-5 inches of rain in eastern NC and 5 feet of snow on Mount Pisgah (just south of Asheville) This low pressure is particularly notable for its compact shape and elaborated comma shape - it could be in a text book. Much more delicate than the brawny St. Patty's day and Tax day nor'easters from earlier in the year.

This low pressure is slinging back moisture and wind onto Hatteras island making for a very unpleasant May day. This is part of the breezy pattern we have here, a squeeze between a strong high up to the north and the low pressure off of NC.

The benefit for the breezy days with air off the ocean is the clarity of the sky - while crisp yesterday, the sky was a brilliant, almost fall-like blue. Probably one of the last crystal clear days until Fall as the Bermuda High should be setting up soon and pumping up muggy air from the south.

The middle class gets whored differently than the poor

One of the most profound changes in "access to capital" that has happened in the past decade is how everything (for the poor and middle class) is being funneled into schemes which are rich in penalties and short on benefits.

In the last millennium, you could go to a bank and get a loan or line of credit to consolidate and pay off debts. For between 8 and 12% APR, you could get a loan to pay off credit cards, personal debts, etc. In this ideal case, everyone wins. The bank got some interest and the debtor got to reduce their interest payments.

Now it is impossible to go to any corporate bank and get an unsecured loan for $5,000. I tried this a few years back and Skank of America and they told me that they don't do that sort of thing anymore.

What is odd is that for this amount of money, I get credit offers all of the time from Skank of America but the financing is always tied to a credit card. I'll use one example I got recently. The bank is more than happy to loan me money, but at the cash advance rate (15.9% APR), and hope that I am late with the payment (the rate then jumps to 24% APR and I get a 50 dollar late fee which is also subject to the 24% rate). This is "access to capital"? No this is "access to poverty".

Acting as a cartel, corporate banks have prevented most people from reasonable access to a credit union using, shock, the Federal Government. These are the same businesses that DETEST regulation. But when a banking entity comes along that serves its members and not its shareholders, the corporate banking industry acts as a single voice to squash these institutions by limiting their clientele.

Now I ask you, does that even sound remotely fair? In the land of the free, I cannot chose among a range of competitive products? This cartel-like behavior means that middle class people who could benefit from being in a credit union and building their credit rating and saving money from reduced penalties and interest are denied that chance and then left, metaphorically, swimming in an ocean full of sharks.

This sort of predatory behavior which targets the middle class is similar to the games banks play with the lower classes (see next post). Why anyone who is middle class would CHOOSE to do business with a corporate bank is beyond me. But then again, what choice do most middle class people have? Corporate banks have restricted credit unions to such a degree that few of us can qualify. And credit unions work for the members. I got my unsecured loan from SECU (in North Carolina) with very favorable terms and I feel good that my money is going back into a system which helps others in the community.

It is a disgrace that competition is being squashed by the cartel of banks and this is done by Congress. Our own representatives are whoring us to the banks by restricting our choices and our access to capital.

Rich predators

The WSJ has been particularly vocal of late about the increasing access to credit for poor people.
I find it alarming when the editors, who would never hop off their pedestal to even ride the Metro with, much less talk to this lower class, begins to champion their causes.

Cause 1: Payday Loans. Its completely understandable that the WSJ might come out in favor of people having access to credit. But when it is predatory lending? That strikes me as just plain mean-spirited. The breakdown goes like this:
Poor people don't have bank accounts because they have marginal cash flow from week to week. Therefore banks can't make money off of them and won't give them accounts. However poor people, when they work, get paid with a check. Where does a person without a car or an account go to get a check cashed? Used to be the mob but they got pushed out by corporate America. SO the poor person has a company cash their check and the company takes its pound of flesh. OK so far. But what happens when the company that cashes checks now dangles short term loans in front of people who have a lot of needs and not a lot of capital? Yup, you set them up to fail and make a profit off of the person. In this case, the company loans money today for earnings that will be paid next week. The company then attaches an exorbitant rate of interest (well past the usual 15% rate for a cash advance on any normal credit card) and, SHOCK, the person cannot repay it. That person now has trashed what little credit they had and will now basically be owned by the company.

This is the practice that the WSJ says is "access to capital by the poor". What it really is: being a loan shark and profiting off of the poorest segment of society. Shameless how low capitalists will stoop to make a penny.

2. "Exotic loan products": Its titillating when the word exotic gets linked to anything. Exotic massage (I'm thinking of some ring tones that my co-workers have that would make nice background music for this). Exotic safaris. Exotic fish. Exotic eyes. These are all things that conjure up something new and foreign and full of allure and intrigue.

So when exotic is linked to loans, you know someone is going to get fucked - but not in a good way.

Exotic loan products have been championed by the WSJ as the way for poor people to get access to capital to buy a house. Now we've all heard the more sanitary term (and more accurate) "sub-prime". Which means that the banks charge more money to people with shabby credit (i.e. poor people). Well the sharks in the industry decided that they could originate loans to poor people with these exotic products and make a buck off of that. These exotic loans are bundled and then sold to banks. The banks then sell the debt to hedge funds while taking a little taste. The hedge funds then hold the debt.

If the economy is good, hedge fund makes money off of the high interest rates that the people have to pay - the very rich are getting even richer off of very poor people.
If the economy is bad, well the hedge fund takes the hit. In principle this sounds fair....but let's go back to the origination of these loans. These loans are not standard 15 or 30 year loans that your parents and mine have. No, these are exotic. For some reason, poor people cannot be originated a 15 or 30 year loan and that debt cannot seem to be bundled and sold to hedge funds. Seems odd to me and I am SHOCKED that the WSJ has not explained why the 30 year mortgage is so different. These exotic loans all have some features in common: teaser rates or interest only which are followed in a few years by ARMs, balloon payments, pre-payment penalties, etc. Essentially, these products are designed to ensnare the lower middle class in a never ending cycle of debt. The 30 year loan which has set payments and no surprises will generate a steady profit for the originator. But it will not get the short term and quick profit that hedge funds now demand.

This is inherently destabilizing to the country. Why would the country NOT regulate these predatory practices out of existance?

I think that it is funny how the WSJ always makes a point that the upper 10% pay all of the taxes in the country - and the lower classes are gettting a free ride. Well I would say that the lower classes are the source of the profits that the upper classes are collecting. And these two examples of "access to credit" show how much of a tax poor people pay in this country. Its not Federal or State taxes that they pay, it is high interest and predatory loans that catch this large segment of the society.

If 50% + 1 person would vote in their economic interest, this would not take place.

DC Madam

Sadly, I had to work very late on Friday (did not get home until 9:30pm) and I was wiped out. So I missed the DC Madam's little appearance on 20/20. Doesn't look like there was much to it....Drudge has a total of zero names this morning.

I guess the "liberal media" isn't so liberal when there are bi-partisan interests.
Of particular note, the gag order on the DC Madam put in place by an ACTIVIST JUDGE.

In the land of the free and home of the brave, since when did a judge get to decide to muzzle a person trying to pay for their own defense? What's next - debtor's prison?

1. I thought that people were innocent until proven guilty and that people in this country are free to make their own informed decisions. What exactly did the DC Madam do that was different than Jeff Gannon? Both were just trying to make a little cash by selling some companionship. I would say that Jeff was more guilty because he was OVERTLY selling sex (he did put his beer can on the web) whereas the DC Madam was not explicitly selling anything. She was scheduling a connection and taking a service fee. While it is clear that she was walking a very fine line - there is no indication that she was overtly peddling sex for money.

2.Note this Madam has no money because the government seized and froze all of her assets. The government's mindset: Those assets are "supposedly" generated by illegal activities and thus available for seizure.
Hey I have an idea for the government, if the DC Madam's house can be seized under this rationale - HOW ABOUT THE 20 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS? EACH ONE OF THEM HAS COMMITTED MULTIPLE FELONIES - WHY DON'T YOU SEIZE ALL OF THEIR ASSETS???!!!
Its not the enforcement of the law so much as the SELECTIVE enforcement.

3. ABC News - Its May, its sweeps, and all I heard this week was that ABC was going to "name names". Hell, I was going to watch it. Sounded like the juiciest thing to hit DC since Monica. But alas, nothing. If ABC actually did name names, then it might have to go to court for contempt since there is an existing gag order on the DC Madam. The network media needs to grow some fangs.....oh, I mean they should. But being owned by multinational corporations, this sort of cantankerous reporting might hurt earnings. God forbid anything stand in the way of earnings. A bunch of whores.

I wish that the DC Madam would put the names on a server in the Bahamas and charge a buck a name. Kinda like a naughty little iTunes - I'd buy 20 names. It would help her generate some revenue for her defense and provide the rest of us with a useful diversion.

I mean, its not like anyone will be surprised that a congressman paid for sex. The only person who is safe from this scandalette is Barney Frank by my estimation!

Now THAT is a supercell

Continental Satellite 5/6/07 morning - Img courtesty of GOES satellite



Des Moines radar - 6:40am EST

As Weatherwoof will no doubt correct me, this enhanced satellite image is not, by definition, a single supercell.

However, I love the term - it conveys scale and power. On the satellite image, even Helen Keller could see this rich boil which looks ready to be lanced! This "boil" is a mass of very strong thunderstorms which contains a severe squall line on its eastward side.
In fact if you look at the radar (from Des Moines) below the satellite, you can see a fantastic squall line just ready to hit the west side of Des Moines. Note how the strong squall line bows out in a convex arrangment and the storms are lined up on a north-south axis for hundreds of miles. These squall lines are famous for their ability to throw down tornadoes and produce large, heavy hail and they often have fantastic clouds associated with them that can extend over 50,000 feet into the atmosphere.

The center of the boil on the satellite is an extreme case of very high cloud tops with the greenish/white enhancement. These are serious storms. If it wasn't dark out there, the impending line would be fantastic to see. Also notable is the wind in Des Moines is coming from the East (not the west) - this line is sucking up air from the ground and throwing it high into the atmosphere. Oh how I wish I could be out on the Plains today to see this line.

Also notable, and somewhat unusual, is what is behind this squall line. There are rather significant radar returns. The yellow coloring behind the squall line is moderate to heavy rain and it covers the entire west part of Iowa.

There was significant flooding when I was there last weekend. Additionally, all the fields have been disced and the corn was going to go in soon. Look for higher corn prices.

How did I meet Jeff? Umm - I think it was....

Well looks like the Brits have picked off another of the aristocracy.
Not the real aristocracy type, but the purchased one. The deposed is Lord Browne - head of BP.

And his firing has a lavender twist.

Seems like Lord Browne liked boys and had a long term relationship with a man named Jeff whom he met through an escort agency. Lord Browne did not tell everyone that Jeff was a hooker (the man turned BP into a global powerhouse - he knows when to be factually inaccurate) rather that they met under benign circumstances (the gym).

So they dated and then the hooker got the boot after loading up on Prada and living the high life and wound up in Toronto. Seems like Lord Browne failed to see the vindictive streak in Jeff - to the BP head's own detriment.

The hooker, bitter and stuck in Canada, now decides he is going to try to get some "severance" from Lord Browne - who says "no ma'am". Then he starts whining publicly and whips up some story that BP money had been used "inappropriately" BY THE HOOKER to start some ring tone business. BP looked at the matter and found it to be inconsequential.

However Lord Browne was having some of his own problems at work - and this is were his adversaries drove in the knife. The reason for Lord Browne's dismissal was that he lied about how he met Jeff. Oh yes, the hooker came clean when the other extortive activities didn't produce any cash. So the hooker was "forced" to sell the story to the tabloids.

When I was reading this in the WSJ, a couple of flags went up.

First of all - all involved say that this has nothing to do with Lord Browne being gay. It was, by all accounts, an open but not discussed secret. But the whole case seems to hinge on the dirty laundry of the head of BP who was not dating another homo from the upper class, rather some hooker.

Second of all - there was a lot of ink wasted on the fact that Lord Browne lied. And the sanctimonious pronouncements that "little white lies" will not be tolerated. Ummmm - I thought to myself when I read this: "Are straight people obligated to discuss how they met? Is anybody obligated to discuss that?".

I mean, do we expect people to be accurate about how they met? If Lord Browne, head of BP, introduces Jeff as a hooker - isn't that social suicide? And whose business is it anyways?

Sounds to me like there were some enemies made along the way and now they are taking their revenge. And using the gay card. Not overtly mind you - that would be vulgar. But the homophobia is wrapped in the language of trust and presented as if Lord Browne has failed because he lied. The other, smaller part is clearly a class issue - that the upper class frowns upon meaningful interactions with the commoners.

Bubba always talks about how it is not the sin that is the problem, it is the cover-up. But in this case, why would anyone expect Lord Browne to have been honest? Or more to the point - accurate? How close to reality do you have to be in your professional life?

That is an unacceptable shifting of the bar. And now society thinks is acceptable to impose its punishment for the non-crime of a gay CEO cannot (apparently) having a relationship with those of the lower classes. For shame Britain.

It is unfortunate that Lord Browne will now have to fade into oblivion as the closet case who was banging a hooker.

Hey ya'll

As Van pointed out on my comments for sex in space....I have been out of town and BUSY.

The cause of my absence was a quick trip out to Iowa - was an enjoyable visit. First trip out there.

So I will be catching up during the next few days....lots to tell!

Sex in space

Ever wonder how you have sex in a weightless environment? Think about it....it would obviate the need for a sling.

In any case I have a great little snippet from a NASA spokesperson regarding humans on a trip to Mars:

One topic that is evidently too hot to handle: How do you cope with sexual desire among healthy young men and women during a mission years long?

Sex is not mentioned in the document and has long been almost a taboo topic at NASA. Williams said the question of sex in space is not a matter of crew health but a behavioral issue that will have to be taken up by others at NASA.

The agency will have to address the matter sooner or later, said Paul Root Wolpe, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who has advised NASA since 2001.

"There is a decision that is going to have to be made about mixed-sex crews, and there is going to be a lot of debate about it," he said.

I wanted to focus on the last line:

"There is a decision that is going to have to be made about mixed-sex crews, and there is going to be a lot of debate about it," he said.

Honey, a mixed-sex crew is the best thing you could have.

Imagine if it was all male - it'd be like an episode of "Oz" in space. Mission control would have to start every call with something like "Is everyone unoccupied?"

Logistically though, it is going to be a problem having all those boys in space without any 'tang.