UPSTATE BLOGS

News From Community Bloggers Across New York State

Buffalo ReUse is holding a fundraiser on November 22nd at 63 Kenmore Ave from 6pm to 8pm Tickets are $25 and available for purchase at the Resource 298 Northampton between Jefferon & Main St..Tues-Saturday from 7:30am to 5:30pm TICKETS ARE LIMITED so please buy early. The ticket includes dinner,dessert & a chance to win some fabulous door [...]

In his not long ago heyday Robert Novak was a thoughtful and carefully crafted news/theatrical self creation. It made him rich and simultaneously reviled and celebrated. Here is a very good interview with this very ill man courtesy of Townhall.com

Perfection.


In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Thank you, Copious Dissent. I'd forgotten how bizarre yet provoking the Onion is.

Once again, the American taxpayer is shafted. News today revolved around Henry Paulson's dismissal of bailing out homeowners and auto companies. I am against any bailout for anyone, but this sniffing at the taxpayers is too much to stomach-- the prevailing attitude among these elites is to bailout everyone with the American taxpayer's money except the American taxpayer! What hath Congress wrought?

Well, seeing as there will be no bailout for us, it's up to us to tale responsibility for ourselves. Our economy has been based on a failed Keynesian theory that debt equals wealth. Such a theory is just that-- a theory, and is utopian in practice. After so long, everyone is in debt to everyone; then what do you do?

I believe it's time to think seriously about where we want our economy to go. The first thing any responsible American should be loking into is paying off any and all debt, even if it means looking into debt consolidation programs such as at Bills.com. Bills.com has gained some popularity recently; I've seen them mentioned on a variety of blogs. They do offer comparable interest rates (6.31% for a 31-year fixed). Debt consolidation, which I have done, helps to pay off debt quicker and reduce monthly payments. Sometimes the payments are stretched out longer than a normal credit card account would be, but there is a psychological incentive to pay off the loan, whereas credit card debt is very difficult to pay. And certainly debt consolidation is less harmful to one's reputation than bankrupcy or default.

I've said it so many times previously: the government is not going to save us, and they are obviously not going to save anything for us. It's time to take responsibility into our own hands, manage our own finances and future, and disentangle ourselves from this debt-laden cycle of slavery to the Federal Reserve System.

You guys said you wanted car posts. LA is on right now. Via Autoblog: The 2010 Ford Fusion AWD Sport has a sleeker, improved snout: Finally, a Ford hybrid passenger car: I’m not at all crazy about the detail of the audio and climate control. Still looks cheap to me, and although [...]

Theophobe sent me this link. It is extremely difficult to believe. See for yourself.

The Conspiracy

I am highly skeptical of its claim. It offers no evidence whatsoever.

Then again, it IS on a Wikipedia-looking site...

It must be true, then!

Other interesting tidbits on the site (some content Rated R; the writers seem to have a strange fascination with Sophia Loren):

500 BC - Greeks invent philosophy(filos=love, Sophia)

403 - The Hagia Sophia completed in Constantinople. Her majestic domes are just huge.

1453 - Turks capture Constantinople and rename it Is Stan Bull, adding minarets as phallic symbols around the Hagia Sophia.

917 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - The Allies make surprise attack on the German Trenches while the Soldiers are transfixed on Sophia's Invention.

oooook. I strongly suspect a conspiracy.

I have a few relations in North Carolina and Virginia who are heavy-equipment operators. The work is surprisingly well-paid-- one gets close to $18 an hour for handling a forklift all day; another gets close to that, working with construction equipment. Perhaps they moved to the south at the right time- just as the building boom took off. The work there is much more competitive now, with the limping economy. Employers seems to be more interested if you can wave around a document of certification in heavy-equipment training.

Problem is, where does one get that certification? Then I heard of Associated Training Services Network. They are an accredited equipment school with at least ten locations across the United States. ATS is accredited by the prestigious National Center for Construction Education and Research, a non-profit education foundation (affiliated with the University of Florida) whose mission is to develop an industry-wide trained workforce. I find it somewhat comforting that the bulldozers, cranes, and other heavy equipment I see is managed by accredited and educated operators.

The website has much more information on education and about their programs in the U.S. Certainly there is money to be made, and an accredited operator has much more leverage in today's job market than one who is not. My father always says that the workforce will always need plumbers, electricians, and contractors...

This sticks in my craw, and should stick in yours, too: The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy. The CEOs of [...]