man's best friend

has anyone seen this image?



it came from a story regarding FLOODING IN BRAZIL. when i first saw this picture it reminded my of just how faithful a dog can be. the more i thought of the dog standing vigil over the grave the more emotional i became.

last sunday was ruby's designated birthday. ruby was a street urchin whom i adopted from a shelter. i didn't rescue ruby, she rescued me. after having a cup of coffee i called her to go for a walk but she wouldn't get out of her bed. this never happens, dogs live for walks. i checked her out and she seemed very lethargic. try as i might, i couldn't persuade her to go for a walk. ruby is nine years old and the life expectancy for her breed is 8 - 12 so i was more than a little alarmed. what to do? i felt her nose. it was warm and semi wet. for the rest of day i treated her like a queen. breakfast in bed and the offer of a walk every hour. she turned me down every time.

she has now returned to her normal self and i'm left wondering if she was really ill or just putting on an act. pitbulls are famous for being vicious and dangerous but there's another side to them. they are very sensitive and intuitive. don't get me wrong, pitbulls are no angels and i wouldn't trust ruby around small children.

at 55 years of age i have more days behind me than in front of me. i've always had the companionship of a dog and think how much time have left on this planet in terms of how many dogs i'll share my life with. i have more dogs behind me than ahead of me. statistically i should have 2 more dogs in my life, maybe 3 if someone up there really likes me.

ruby, long may you run.

the big short

maybe this should be titled better late than never. i should have read this book when it first came out but being somewhat of a tightwad i waited to borrow a copy from the public library. i found it to be an excellent read, not too difficult to understand and not too simplistic as to skim over some of the tricky stuff.

the two things that jump out at you are the incompetence and corruption in the financial system. and of course it all comes down to profit. whilst the investment houses were basking in the glory of the huge profits to be made by handing out sub prime loans like halloween candy and then repackaging them as bundles of investment grade bonds it seems those in charge were blinded by the profit. AIG was run by an arrogant fool that didn't give a shit about the details and those that were smart enough to read all the details made a fortune by investing in CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS. interestingly, a new breed of credit default swaps had to be created to make all this happen.

the big question is what were the regulatory agencies doing while all this was going on? does it take a genius to figure out that self regulation doesn't work? the totally disgusting thing is these large financial institutions have been allowed to carry on with business as usual with no new regulations. the answer to all this is really simple.

big business is the government! democracy is an illusion. profit is the straw than stirs the drink. with all the pension funds invested in the capital markets the beast must be fed! we all felt the pain when the beast missed a few meals and many of us are continuing to feel the pain.

i love you sons of bitches.

ouch........

how did it happen?

here is a reenactment of what happened:



well not quite. i decided to break up some old lumber around the house. rather than saw it into pieces i decided to smash it into pieces with the sledgehammer sonny bought me for father's day. i placed the board on a concrete ledge and gave it a mighty whack. the fecking thing immediately sprang into the air and hit me right between the eyes. i saw stars and within 10 seconds i had a lump the size of a golf ball just above the nose. i staggered into the house and looked into the mirror. blood was pouring down the my face and my vision was blurry. after cleaning up the blood and gaining my senses i grabbed a bag of the lovely mrs myshkin's frozen peas and applied it to my lumpy face.

when the lovely mrs myshkin came home she was more concerned about her thawed out blood soaked frozen peas than my injured face. after she finished telling me how stupid i was she chastised me for swearing. she wasn't home when it happened but after 23 years of marriage she knew the f-bombs would be flying.

so it fucking goes.

\

oh yeah, i'm thinking of suing the manufacturer of the sledgehammer for not attaching a warning label or providing adequate instructions.

i love you sons of bitches.

ouch

we are all the victims of a series of accidents.



there will be a very nice prize for the lucky soul correctly guessing what happened.

even in pain, i love you sons of bitches.

time for a change

is anyone else sick and tired of politics?

it has all become so predictable. some event will occur prompting both the right and left wing choirs to start singing. to an outsider such as myself these choirs can't sing for sour apples but the members of each choir are convinced theirs is the sweetest music on the planet. after they sing, all the other members of the choir quickly comment on their own brilliance and the absolute ignorance and corruption of the opposing choir. the destruction of the opposition choir is more important than solving the problem.

there are smaller choirs are out there but they're hard to hear these days with all the noise coming out of the large well funded choirs. the choir i belong to is constantly under attack from the corporate profit choir. the corporate profit choir is so clever it has spawned countless sub choirs dedicated to discrediting my choir. the captains of industry have unlimited resources to train and maintain their choirs. sadly, the poorer less educated members of the choir don't realize they are in the choir but they're ready to sing at a moment's notice. so it goes.



i love you sons of bitches.

why capitalize?

from time to time people ask why i almost never capitalize letters. i am of the firm belief that the capitalization of words is a privilege not a right much the same way as having a driver's license is a privilege and not a right.

an extreme example would be mahmoud ahmadinejad. what has that hate mongering little prick ever done to merit the capitalizing of his name? rather than spend time pondering if a particular word merits being capitalized i just decided to hell with it. save capitalization for special circumstances, like Ruby's birthday or anything relating to Shane Macgowan.

so if i ever capitalize your name, you know i think you're pretty fucking special.

so what do i think is special?

the soundtrack from I'm Not There.



i love you Sons of Bitches.

those wacky iranians

iran has decided to tackle the big stuff, IRAN BANS VALENTINE'S DAY

after trying to blow up israel for the past few decades i guess they decided to hit israel in the pocketbook. everyone knows the jews make a fortune selling candy and greeting cards for valentine's day. but the jews are smart, they'll control the black market for valentine's day stuff in no time.

there is a good chance that the iranians won't be successful with their valentine's day crackdown. they can't control heroin for sour apples.

********IRAN HAS THE WORLDS BIGGEST RATE OF HEROIN ADDICTION******

i suspect the taliban have more to do with iran's drug problem than the jews. could it be possible that the iranian clerics are dumber than a sack of rocks?



i love you sons of bitches.