My Sick Mind

WASHINGTON, DC - In a bid to shore up investor confidence in the face of the spiraling market crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned all short-selling in the shares of 799 financial companies. Short selling is a time-honored method for profiting when a stock drops. The ban took effect immediately Friday and extends through October 2. The SEC said it might extend the ban - so that it would last for as many as 30 calendar days in total - if it deems that it is nec essary. You remember, several years ago, when the country was in the throes of an energy crisis? The thought-over solution proposed by the Bush administration was to extend Daylight Savings Time an extra six weeks - from March to November, making Standard Time practically non-existant. Now, with the country in the throes of an economic crisis, the Bush administration's solution was to ban short selling of financial stocks by stock traders. When a trader shorts a stock, he is aiming to profit f...

Too many people going underground. Too many people reaching for a piece of cake. Too many people bulled and pushed around. Too many waiting for that lucky break. - Paul McCartney, Too Many People As part of the humongous bailout of insurer American International Group, the federal government will lend the company up to a whopping $85 billion — of taxpayer money. It may seem like a risky investment, but some analysts say the government is likely to end up making a tidy profit from the deal through interest and stock profits. Others, like Peter Schiff, author of "Crash Proof: How To Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse" and president of Euro Pacific Capital, say the government has made a stupid move. "I think they will lose this money and more. This is not a good use of taxpayer money," Schiff says. "They're flushing $85 billion down the drain. Who knows how much more? I mean, I have no idea how much money AIG is going to lose. But the government is not...

Our local Comcast sports channel runs a pre and post-game show during every Eagles game. Last night I saw a promo for the show. In addition to the usual cast - Ike Reese, Ray Didinger, Vaughn Hebron and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (that's a topic for another day) ... the voice-over added "and the lovely Kathy Romano." There's no doubt that she is lovely. It's TV, so it's part of the reason she got the job. She does this thing called "Roaming With Romano" where she ... um ... roams around and talks to fans (guys) who probably shove each other out of the way for a shot to get close to her. That's not the point. The point is the "lovely" introduction. Is it sexist to introduce a woman as lovely if you aren't going to say something about the men on the show? Hebron is a nice looking guy, why don't they describe him as handsome? We (the societal we) feel compelled to describe women in a physical sense but men don...

As I was driving to work today, I saw a vacant lot with a sign proclaiming it to be the "Future home of [some] Church of Christ." The first thing I thought was, "aren't they all Christ's churches?" The second thing I thought was, "There goes another ratable ." Another currently taxable property is being turned over to a group who will develop it, use our resources and not pay taxes on the property. That started off the chain of thought that wondered about (a) why it was necessary to build another church and (b) the whole separation of church and state thing. The phrase separation of church and state is generally traced to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists , in which he referred to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. The phrase was then quoted by the United States Supreme Court first in 1878, and then in a series of cases...

Something ain't right. I know it's still technically summer, in spite of school schedules and holidays, but it's stifling hot here today. Early this morning I figured I could get a quick bike ride in. "How bad could it be?" I wondered quietly to myself. It could be 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity. Within minutes I was soaked to the skin and struggling to breathe. Maybe it doesn't affect everyone like that, because I did see a few snakes and lizards crawling around, so I guess there's something wrong with me . Suffice it to say, I cut the ride way short and returned to the relative comfort of home. Humans are doomed by their freedom. We have opposable thumbs and the ability to choose, so we travel. We choose to live in places like New Orleans, Louisiana; Galveston, Texas and most of Florida where the weather kicks our asses on a regular basis. We put things back the way they were and resume our lives of denial. Meanwhile, penguins don't venture ...