The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Confederacy of Dunces is a cult favorite about a blustery, spoiled, arrogant and unemployed middle aged man who lives at home with his mother. Apparently it’s laugh-out-loud, can’t-put-it-down funny, but I’ve not yet read it. Perhaps I should, ’cause I could use a few laughs today. The title reminds me of this Johnathon Swift quote:

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Swift is attributed with many simple but meaningful quotes, such as “Every dog must have his day,” and “Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.” Well, I hope this Swift quote will soon be heard coming out of the mouths of the mainstream media pundits: “A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… that he is wiser today than yesterday.”

Sometimes it’s no fun to say “I told you so,” such as when you threaten your kid that if he doesn’t study he’s going to fail school . . . and then he doesn’t listen to you, and of course he fails school, and now he lives in your basement playing video games. And he’s thirty. It’s times like these when words like “I told you so” ring a little hollow.

Not that this is going to prevent me from saying it: To my friends and family who said I was over reacting to the economic indicators, and panicking about something that would supposedly “never happen,” I TOLD YOU SO.

The United States of America, this grand social experiment, did have a chance but we blew it. As did the Pakled in Star Trek the Next Generation we’re bobbing about aimlessly, lost in space inside our broken starship, proclaiming “We are SMART!” and insisting that the Federation find a way to make us “go” again. If you have NO idea what I’m talking about, the Star Trek episode titled Samaritan Snare should be instructive. Whenever I listen to idiots like Sean Hannity blather on about how America is the “greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of the Earth” I think about the Pakled. Hannity even kinda-sorta looks like a Pakled to me.

Hmph. Moron.

Anyway: People with limited incomes have known things were bad for awhile now, and now it’s finally dawning on Middle America how completely destroyed we are. Little does Middle America know that a loud and not-insignificant minority has been screaming about our doomed economy for years. Maybe you even know one of them. Maybe he’s even your crabby uncle yelling at no one in particular at the family reunion how this country has gone to hell in a handbasket. Well guess what: When it comes to the government, the craziest old coot in your family tree hollering about the shysters in Washington D.C. is probably the one talking the most sense.

Anyone who thinks the “sub prime crisis” is the cause of our present day problems is confused by the mainstream media and needs to turn off the TV set. The housing situation looks like a cause, but it is just one of many symptoms, as were the Savings and Loan crisis and the ENRON debacle. Here is the bottom line reason for the pickle we find ourselves in today: Our economic system has no foundation. One cannot build wealth by moving around debt. As for the “information” upon which we made our investment decisions? Nearly all were lies. Smoke and mirrors. Shadows. Whispered promises that were never intended to be kept.

Ron Paul Doesn’t Look So “Crazy” Now, Does He, New Yorkers?

Look, it’s Ron Paul! But what is he doing in New York, the fancy magazine for elites, alongside establishment finance types like a former Morgan Stanley economist and a famous investor? Isn’t he sort of “kooky?” Everyone (who didn’t live in a basement or wasn’t a furry) laughed at Paul’s quest for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, especially since Paul wanted to get rid of the Federal Reserve and take America back to the gold standard, in which money is backed by something other than the worthless promises of filthy bankers and shiftless bureaucrats. But now it looks like the Fed’s board of governors may be leading us into depression, and even that capitalist bible the Wall Street Journal ran an article this weekend speculating that the thinking behind the gold standard, if not the standard itself, “will have its day again.” So Paul’s stock is rising! Let’s hear what terrible things he has to say about our future . . . (read the rest here)

Here’s a hint for the next time you are foolish enough to get your financial advice from TV: Whenever Fox News or ANY corporate-owned pundit says a politician is a “kook,” RUN, DON’T WALK, to find out what that kooky politician is saying, because he’s probably the only sane man in that confederacy of dunces. Ron Paul is not an ordinary politician. He’s a statesman, an honest broker, a rare breed these days. Every thing Ron Paul says about the Federal Reserve Bank and our doomed economy, including the reasons behind our current predicament, is true: It’s high time we returned to a commodity-based currency. It’s time we started manufacturing things again, instead of just moving money around and calling it “productivity.” It’s time for transparency and honesty in government and politics. It’s time the financial community, including the Security and Exchange Commission, started following it’s own rules. It’s all so simple and obvious, and it blows my mind that these simple statements of fact are denigrated as “kooky,” when they are self-evident.

Now excuse me while I go work in my garden and count my gold. Oh, and take out another home-equity loan to pay off my VISA debts. For the last time. I swear. This time I really mean it.

Dolce & Gabbana wedges, 2004 (?) collection

It’s shocking to discover cosmetics makers may still be using lead in their reddest lipsticks. Perhaps we pouty-lipped ladies would be better off switching to lip gloss until manufacturers get their act together.

I went to Wegmans today and bought all their loss leaders and nothing else, including 20 bottles of lemonade and Italian mineral water averaging about 99 cents apiece, four pounds of strawberries ($8), and fifteen pounds of ground beef ($1.89/lb) which I promptly froze. I used one pound of strawberries in my home-made ice cream, then sliced and froze the rest.

Last week I bought five cases of soda for just $11. If I keep this up they’re not going to let me shop there anymore.

Few in the financial reporting business are willing to turn over the rocks that are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but they’re more than willing to whisper about them:

“Nothing in the insanity of the US mortgage morass epitomizes better the recklessness, risk acceptance, and criminality than Fannie Mae. It is also the object of intense, pervasive, systematic, and very deep crime syndicate activity, some linked to US Govt agencies. In my opinion, few have given serious consideration that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (F&F) must be bailed out, or else a large cast of ugly dangerous people will be exposed for two decades and hundreds of billion$ of fraud, theft, corruption, and crime syndicate activity. More can be said on this point, perhaps even touching past presidents. F&F cannot be liquidated with full disclosure and resolution of colossal criminal fraud.”

- Freebuck, via The Hat Trick Newsletter, via Gold Eagle Magazine

How interesting. World Reports says the exact same thing and worse, but I fear that if I even so much as link to the website that lays it all out I’ll put my blog in danger. Shortly after Buzzflash linked to the news of the bribes and death threats and the EMPTY retirement accounts at Freddy Mac, the site crashed. When Buzzflash was restored the link had disappeared, and I couldn’t even find it in the archives! All over the financial sectors of the internet there is buzz about fraud, but without much offered in the way of specifics. NOBODY IS TOUCHING THE STORY OF THE CENTURY.

Not that it matters: The blogosphere will ensure that matters take their due course. You can dig up the sordid details yourselves using some clever Boolean logic: Start with the author of this book. Add shadow banking terminology such s offshore, off balance sheet, ENRON, Freddie and Fannie, pension funds. Then, throw in a few terms typically associated with the Mafia (death threats, extortion, fraud), terms associated with espionage (global, intelligence, analysis) and the name of a certain media mogul.

OR, you can just assume that the F&F situation is ENRON Redux, only worse because the criminal betrayals are at INTERNATIONAL level this time. If you have friends or relatives who work at Freddie Mac you might want to clean out your guest rooms. Their retirement funds have all been stolen, and there is no point in trying to chase down the thieves: They are probably already drinking Mai Tais with Karl Rove and Ken Lay.

OKAY! The ROUNDUP!

The Bad News: We’re fucked.

The Good News: All this talk of bailing out Fannie and Freddie is probably all just empty rhetoric designed to prop up the markets.

The Bad News: Fannie and Freddie WILL fail, taking hundreds of failing banks with it.

The Good News: They were going to fail anyway, and at least our tax dollars weren’t wasted to buy time for a bunch of criminals.

The Bad News: We’re all fucked anyway.

hi, cum to Florida?… everyone else from Jersey is here?

- Some Guy

Never answer an online dating message in which your potential suitor spells come as “cum.”

“Look at us! This is where we ended our very first date, remember? I was brave enough to come to your house.” I laughed. “I actually trusted you.”

Scorpio laughed. “I haven’t been in this thing for years.” I was amazed we were able to get into the hammock without spilling the wine.

We settled in for a beautiful sunset over Scorpio’s lake. “So anyway, like I was saying I’m cutting down on my communications costs,” I said. “I’m getting rid of Verizon. They’re too expensive, plus they’re a bunch of spies. I hate them. I’ll spend the money I save on, well, I’ll spend it on gas, I guess.”

Scorpio took a sip of his wine. “I was thinking about getting rid of my land line too,” he said. “I don’t really need it.”

“I was thinking about getting a laptop. Maybe it will help me get out more. All I ever do is homework and blog. I have no life. I mean, at least with a laptop I could do my homework someplace interesting, like the beach or Starbucks or something. Maybe meet some new people for a change.”

“Uh huh.”

I sighed, and we rocked in silence for a moment. I knew it was a copout to blame my classes for my lack of a social life. I had stopped taking the Zoloft and was as painfully shy as I’d always been. The very thought of putting my dating profile online again exhausted me: I hated meeting complete strangers after work, after dark, at one watering hole after another after another after another. Unfortunately I knew it was the only way I’d ever meet anyone outside my present social circle, which was embarrassingly small, and mostly married.

“Maybe I just need to get out more.”

He didn’t say anything.

I almost regretted saying it. I was jealous of Scorpio: He was having another blast of a summer at his shore home, socializing with his new friends and dating other women, while I, too financially constrained to engage in any but the most mundane local activities, and too shy to put myself on display anyway, stayed at home with my nose in a book. My stolen moments with Scorpio during the week were the only sex life I’d had for over a year.

I backed things up a bit. “Maybe I’ll buy a Mac this time.” In a year or two. When I can afford it.

“Hm.”

“You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?

“What?”

I laughed. “You’re just laying there looking at my tits, aren’t you?”

He laughed. “Well you’re putting them in my face, what do you expect?”

I adjusted myself, settling into the crook of his arm, my head on his shoulder, trying not to rock the hammock and spill his wine. Here we were in the same hammock we rocked in on our first date. It’s as if we’ve gone full circle. Five years later and here we are.

“They’re beautiful. How can I not stare?”

I could just get up and go right now, and it would be almost . . . poetic.

“They’re like kryptonite to me, you know that, don’t you?”

But I’m so comfortable. I buried my nose into his armpit and breathed deeply.

He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

He smells so good. Damn it.

It was getting dark, and the mosquitoes had made their appearance, but I didn’t say anything. We both took deep breaths and rocked. Finally he spoke up. “Want to go inside? I murmered an affirmative and swung my feet over the side of the hammock, then held his glass while he did the same. We took each other’s hands as we walked up the hill to his house.

Just one more time.

These Coach peep toe pumps, perfectly tailored and comfortable (for heels), retailed at $250.

At DSW they were $170, STILL too much for this fashionista to pay. Unless they’re couture I won’t pay over $100 for any pair of shoes, ever. But DSW put this pair in the back room at 70% off so I grabbed them, put them on my feet and danced around screaming MINE MINE MINE! OK I didn’t really scream, but I did dance a little. Plus I had a $10 gift certificate, bringing the total price down to

$24 !!!

Even my margarita is wearing a thong.

Labels or Love by Fergie

Shopping for labels, shopping for love
Manolo and Louis, it’s all I’m thinking of
Shopping for labels, shopping for love
1, 2
Manolo and Louis, it’s all I’m thinking of
1, 2, 3 Turn the lights on.

I already know what my addiction is
I be looking for labels, I ain’t looking for love
I shop for purses while love walks out the door
Don’t cry, buy a bag and get over it
And, I’m not concerned with all the politics
It’s a lot of men I know I could find another.

What I know is that I’m always happy when I walk out the store, store
I’m guessing Supercalifragi-sexy, nothing to be playing with
I love him, hate him, kiss him, diss him, tryna to walk a mile in my kicks

[Chorus]
Love’s like a runway but which one do I love more?
No emotional baggage, just big bags filled with Dior
Love’s like a runway, so what’s all the fussing for?
Let’s stop chasing them boys and shop some more.
1, 2, 1, 2, 3, Turn the lights on.

I know I might come off as negative
I be looking for labels, I ain’t looking for love
Relationships are often so hard to tame
A Prada dress has never broken my heart before
And, ballin’s something that I’m fed up with
I’mma do the damn thing, watch me do the damn thing
Cause I know that my credit card will help me put out the flames
I’m guessing Supercalifragi-sexy, nothing to be playing with
I love him, hate him, kiss him, diss him, tryna to walk a mile in my kicks

Gucci, Fendi, Prada purses, purchasing them finer things
Men they come a dime a dozen, just give me them diamond rings
I’m into a lot of bling, Cadillac, Chanel and Coach
Fellas boast but they can’t really handle my female approach
Buying things is hard to say
Rocking Christian Audigier, Manolo, Polo, taking photos in my Cartier
So we can’t go all the way, I know you might hate it but
I’m a shop for labels while them ladies lay and wait for love

[Chorus]
Love’s like a runway but which one do I love more?
No emotional baggage, just big bags filled with Dior
Love’s like a runway, so what’s all the fussing for?
Let’s stop chasing them boys and shop some more.
1, 2, 1, 2, 3, Turn the lights on.

Shopping for labels, shopping for love
Manolo and Louis, it’s all I’m thinking of
Shopping for labels, shopping for love
1, 2
Manolo and Louis, it’s all I’m thinking of
1, 2, 3 Turn the lights on.

Moi, the Hedonistic Pleasureseeker, is fussy about my water.

I usually drink distilled water or spring/mineral water as I refuse to suffer the proven adverse mental health effects of fluoridated tap water. Yesterday I was overjoyed to discover that the township that I live in does not fluoridate it’s water supply. WOOT!!!

Unfortunately, between 60 and 70 percent of the country is not so fortunate. Americans are more likely to encounter fluoridated water in large towns and cities than in smaller, outlying townships. Since most of humanity clusters in urban areas guess what? Unless you take special efforts to remove the additives from your water you’re probably drinking crap, and a Brita filter won’t cut it, either. No matter what the ads tell you, the filters you buy at the store WILL NOT remove fluoride from your tap water.

So what’s wrong with fluoride? I’m glad that you asked.

Calcium fluoride is naturally present in some mineral waters and even some foods, but that’s not the chemical you should be worried about, because what’s being put in America’s water supplies is not calcium fluoride. Do a little digging and you’ll discover that it’s something much, much worse. In fact, the so-called “fluoride” being dumped in 60-70% of our drinking water is so poisonous that only a few parts per billion are apparently enough to lower our children’s IQs. Influential operatives sliming the corridors of power have known this all along, which TOTALLY pisses me off, SO . . . Full report after the jump, and it’s NOT a Hedonistic Pleasure.

(more…)

It worked when I was a kid, and it still works today:  A bowl of ice cream and a bubble bath in the dark makes the mean old crabbies go bye bye.  It’s the perfect thing to do before bed. All better now!

Stewart: Do you watch the news that we’re watching?

Logan: No

Stewart: In the United States? Do you see what we’re hearing about the war? So, we might actually know everything?

Logan: If I were to watch the news that you hear in the United States I’d just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts.

(WILD APPLAUSE)

This is the interview that earned Lara Logan the relentless mainstream media smearfest taking place right now. “What? She’s not a virgin?” The douchebag media moguls are punishing her for telling the truth of how morally bankrupt we’ve ALL become, thanks to THEM. That’s right: Our shitty, treasonous, useless mainstream media. Logan called them out, and now she’s getting “the business.” Like we care about the sex lives of war correspondents; It was a freaking war zone for chrissakes.

Tonight on the way home from work I was listening to NPR (XM Radio) and they were gassing about how “awful” it was that the world of print media was disappearing. Here the MSM thought they had us all under control! Yet we just bypassed them by going to the internet. WAH. Well boo fucking hoo! The MSM assclowns have no one to blame but themselves. There will be a PARTY AT MY PLACE! if corporatist ass kissing newspapers begin to fall like dominoes and the “news” programs on television fade into irrelevance.

Now, pay attention: The Fourth Estate failed us by failing to hold our government accountable, so why are we giving them our money? When we all “switch to digital” next year, consider just letting your television go blank! Use it to watch DVDs instead, and get your news and entertainment from outlets that deserve your business. I’ll be canceling my cable this weekend, and I’ve already canceled the newspaper I’d only just begun to receive. Die, mainstream media motherfuckers, just DIE already. We won’t miss you.

(Yeah, I have PMS. Two senators got email from me today, but just wait until I get these media people on the phone! Some words just need to be spoken.)