Live in Hog Country

And I’m not just saying that because REM broke up.

As it turns out – E= mc squared is no longer true. (sorry my keyboard wasn’t made for math functions.) Scientists have observed neutrinos going faster than the speed of light  and therefore presumably NOT going backwards in time as Albert Einstein and John Carpenter would have us to believe. (Well so much for that Prince of Darkness remake I wanted to do.)  If E doesn’t equal mcsquared anymore that throws the entire nature of the universe into chaos – mathematically speaking.  And it means that warp drive is theoretically possible.  To Boldly Go where no neutrino has gone before. Just something to think about.

One note on the REM break up… I was really sad to see it happen. I found out at work and I was in an actual state of shock for several minutes afterward as my brain processed the idea of no more REM.

While my brain was processing this I suddenly became aware that no one else at work was stunned or phased or even moved by the news. Most of my coworkers are several years younger than me, some weren’t even alive in the 80′s. I had one guy look at me and say “What are you so upset about? It’s REM, they had like one album. It’s not like it’s Radiohead.” to which I replied “OK I have to leave now before I say something that will get me fired.” and walked away. I feel sorry for these kids today. They don’t even know what they are missing.

CNN is reporting that the poverty rate has hit a new high at 15.1%.

That’s 46.2 million people living below the poverty line in. You can call it a recession or a double dip or whatever – but for 46 million people it’s a depression.

Does that make Hugh Grant the second coming?

As I said in my last post I’m not a huge fan of news. Rupert Murdoch was one of the main people who made me hate it. His idea of journalistic integrity leaves a lot to be desired… So to see him taken down completely in England by an actor… Well that is just pretty darn cool.

The man who went up a hill came down a journalist.

Now some would argue that taping a journalist without their knowledge, might be uncool. But considering the tactics used by the “journalists” in England I think it was fair game.

I know it has been awhile since I gave you all music. Rest assured a new song is coming. I am at Camp this weekend trying to learn more about web development. And the kidos go back to school on August 15th. So hopefully by September 1st (it’s good to set goals) there will be a new song.

On Friday June 6th the United Nations released a report stating that Internet Access is a basic human right.

“facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.”

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/06/united-nations-wikileaks-internet-human-rights/38526/

Unfortunately we didn’t hear about it on the news, because the news media was obsessed with try to figure out if you have to pixilate a picture of a hard on in underwear if you show it on television before 9 pm.

I hate the news in general most days. I think many journalists have become lazy and complacent. Actual news has been replaced by “the talker.”

When I was a kid “the talker” was called gossip – and covering it meant your news organization was not considered real journalism. – oh how the times have changed. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite reporting this junk? hee hee… junk. :p LOL

The irony now is that the twitter-verse and the trending lists say that Weinergate is over. He’s no longer trending and a poll taken of his constituents shows that over 50% of them think he should keep his job.

Unfortunately the “lame stream media” is behind the curb again and now every time I turn on the TV I am forced to hear some pundit or so called expert try to explain why he did it. Which is really funny, and wrong.

So for those of you out there who still give a shit and don’t understand why a man would send a picture like that to some chick on the internet. Let me give you that answer.

He wanted to see her tits.

That’s it. Plain and simple.

And according to the U.N. -  he had every right to do it. It wasn’t illegal. He didn’t break any laws. It is a non story that no one cares about except reporters and politicians.

Now here are some animals on water skis.

I recently watched the HBO movie “Too Big To Fail”. The historical drama takes place during the financial meltdown of 2008 and covers the initiation of the TARP bailout program. I remember watching the meltdown on tv, and seeing experts say that no one could have seen this coming… and laughing. There were probably over 5000 people who saw it coming, and I was one of them.

We were customer service specialists for mortgage companies. We were the people who talked to the home owners every day and knew everything there was about their loans.

This is a clip from the movie. I find it to be concise in it’s overall explanation of the meltdown.

The biggest problem is barely touched on in that scene, and was rarely spoken about in the media.

We called it “The Option ARM”.

Adjustable Rate Mortgages. With an Option to pay just the interest. These were originally developed by Countrywide, but soon Ditech and a million other companies were originating them. The way they were sold was pure evil.

Adjustable rate mortgages have been around for a long time. When I was in training we were told they were loans for realtors and investors who did not plan on keeping the property for long (less than 5 years) and were gambling on the idea that interest rates would go down. (an adjustable rate mortgage is tied to the interest rate. If the rate drops your interests due on your loan drops; however during my years in customer service, I never once saw the rate drop. It only went up. Though I am sure some of them may have tanked recently with all the other interest rates.)

These ARM loans were different. They were not market to realtors and investment property owners. They were marketed to poor first time home buyers. (people who should have been applying for FHA and FMHA loans or people who couldn’t even qualify for those.)

They were marketed through 800 numbers and online. They all had insane “teaser rates” of 3 and 4%. ( for the first month – after that the rate immediately jumped up to 7 or 8%) There was little needed in the way of collateral for the loan, practically no down payment. There must have been little in the way of loan explanation, and there was no closing. Just a “Close at Home” Kit designed to save the homeowner from paying the cost of the closing. What they did tell them about the loan was that you will have the option to pay just the interest on your loan if you need to… what they didn’t say is you only get that option when the interest due on your loan is more than your regular payment. So they gave out these really weird complicated loans to people who had no clue what they were getting into and probably shouldn’t have qualified in the first place.

Within the first twelve months we would hear from the customer needing to know why “my loan looks messed up.” What could you say, their loan was messed up but it was designed to be that way. After the first year, everyone owed more on their house than they paid for it. The entire point was to send the loan into negative amortization and thereby make more money on fees and interest.

And thus a huge segment of poor and lower middle class America ended up losing their homes, and filling for bankruptcy. While the guys who thought up this whole plan ended up getting huge bonus check, for the amount of money they had earned their company, by screwing people who were just trying to grasp the American Dream.

That’s why I rent.