There are a lot of thoughts going on in my head today, but not one of them makes up enough space for a post so here they all are together:
* The Aaron’s 499 finishes with a spectacular finish that sends Carl Edwards into the retaining fence in the Tri-Oval, and send Brad Keselowski to Victory Lane.
“Wow!” does not even begin to describe it. That was a great race with a wild finish. You’ve got to feel happy for Brad Keselowski for getting his first ever Sprint Cup win, and you have to feel for Carl Edwards who had the race won. The good thing is that there were no fatal injuries in the stands due to flying debris, the catch fence held and didn’t allow Carl to fly into the stands.
Two things: I hope that Brad doesn’t fall victim to “The Talladega Curse”, he’s got too bright of a future to not win another race in his career. And how about Carl Edwards jogging across the Start/Finish line like he was in “Talladega Nights”? You know what would have made that moment perfect? If Carl had taken off his fire suit and just run across the line in his underwear with his helmet still on that would have made the moment perfect!!! That would have been the ultimate life imitates art moment if he went out like Ricky Bobby.
* The New York Post is reporting that some of the banks that were in trouble and accepted bailout money have fired many of their employees and hired cheap overseas labor to take their place. Bank of America, CitiBank and Bank of New York Mellon are the financial institutions pointed out in the story as the ones screwing over American workers. *
First of all, if this is true then Congress should demand the TARP money back from these banks, and if they don’t, then I have someone for the “teabaggers” to protest against this July 4th instead of a stimulus package that would create American jobs. If they were upset about their tax dollars going to fix roads, put people back to work or getting the economy moving, then why haven’t they raised a stink about their tax dollars going to pay someone’s hourly wage in India? Second of all, this might not actually be true because…well, let’s face it…IT’S THE NEW YORK POST!!!!! I’m sorry, but with all of the amateurish crap that they write at that rag they make The National Enquirer look like Pulitzer material.
* 18-year-old Alina Percea auctions off her virginity to an unidentified Italian man for 10,000 euro. She’s planning on using the cash to put herself through University in Germany and to help her family back home in Romania. *
Words cannot even begin…
I know that this economy is rough people but come on, selling your virginity?!? There have got to be better ways to make money!!! All right, I’ve actually seen a picture of this girl and even though she’s what can be described as “pretty”, this is not something that I would recommend that any guy out there would do. I don’t care how desperate you are for a date, I don’t care how lonely you happen to be, no good can come of this!!! Memo to “Italian Guy”: face it, some people are going to say that you are engaging in prostitution. Do you really want to be know for that? Dude, do you really want to be that infamous? As for her…Alina come on, seriously?!? You really want to do this?!? This is something that you actually want to go through with?!? My advice would be to think very carefully about this as this is a life changing event that is not to be taken lightly. I know that I am an American and we have different morals over here when it comes to sex, but even in Europe there has got to be some sort of hand-wringing over this, right?
* An article on MSN Money describes how the recession is hitting men harder than it is women. The article described how male-dominated professions like Construction, Finance and Manufacturing are cutting jobs, while female-dominated professions like Health Care and Education are growing. The article also describes how much more resilient Men are compared to the Great Depression. During the Depression men were seen as the sole bread-winner and if they couldn’t provide they were seen as failures. Today that pressure isn’t as prevalent as most families have, or had, two incomes with both parents working. But some men still suffer from the ideal that they are supposed to provide for their families, and that society sees them as unmanly if they do not.
Yeah, I know that feeling well. I have to struggle with it every time I send out a resume and I don’t hear anything back. I know that these companies get deluged with applications as soon as the ads hit the fishwrap or gets posted on CareerBuilder and Monster, but there are some of us out here who can do the jobs, are fully qualified and would be a great asset for you, but we’re just not getting the chance to prove it. Wifey keeps telling me that she doesn’t think any less of me and that I should cut myself some slack. Well when you were raised by a single mom who thought that you were going to be as useless and selfish as your father, you try to do everything you can to prove her ghost wrong. At the same time you try to prove to your deadbeat-dad that you didn’t waste time going to college and that you are a better man then he could ever hope to be.
Of course in my case I’m competing with a chain-smoking, beer-guzzling, skirt-chasing adulterer who torpedoed three marriages because he couldn’t keep it in his pants, so there’s not much of a contest there. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, I only sleep with my wife whom I’ve been with for 14 years so even without the job I still win.
But I digress…
* I’m getting a lot more people following me on Twitter these days. *
If any of you have a job for an underutilized 42-year-old, long-haired, failed actor who is good at sports video games, loves cats, loves his wife and has discovered a passion for writing his opinions in an open forum…
…I’m available.
Coming tomorrow: my commentary on a very special letter that is making the rounds on the Internet. The letter is addressed to President Obama – from “Real Americans.”
By “real” I mean Right-Wing-Neo-Conservative-Teabagging-Wingnuts that would make Fred Phelps blush with pride.
[...] See more here: Thoughts on a Monday [...]
Now adays, a lot of companies are hiring over seas so they do not have to pay the American people higher wages. They would rather hire over seas where labor is cheap and sometimes, the quality as well. Unfortunately it is the American people who need the jobs for the economy to survive here and it shameful that corporations no longer take pride in their workers. The Ol’ Mighty Dollar is their God, and anything else, they don’t care for or have an interest in if it doesn’t save them a buck or two. The politicians who fight jobs for the people, are doing this for their own selfish means. Roads need to be fixed, as well as bridges, school infracstructure, old buildings that can be fixed and rented out to low income families and the list goes on. While they fight these ideas, they throw in a few of their own. The news isn’t good. Most monies they would like to put toward things that will benefit them, not the people. while they hassell over ideas and input, they make the unemployed rate higher. The job opportunities are shortcoming and the Government assistance programs are climbing to rates haven’t been to in some time. People need work, and when unemploymentruns out, people will be forced to attend the Government offices for some sort of assistance, food banks and while all this is going on, the crime rate will rise with frustrated unemployed workers. The rise in suicide will be more common. The politicians need to find a way to lower their expectations on what they want and start thinking beyond the box, and think about what the people will need to survive. Their greed will be eventual in the fact, that they are not helping the economy. They need to stop the blame game and their alterior motives as to why they stop certain jobs from coming into their states, and deal with it like the rest of us and put those jobs out there so that men and women can support their families and get their lives back on track. We may need more money than over seas workers but it is because our cost of living expenses far exceed their’s. We are not asking to be millionaires. We just need to work, to survive and feel like we are accommplishing something.
Men have always been seen as breadwinners because it is how society has fit them into their rolls. The days of Ozzy and Harriet are gone and times are changing. It is not uncommon for husbands to be at home dads and wives to go to work and bring home the “bacon”. However, the recession is even making that hard now. Companies and politicians would be wiser to give opportunities to the people here at home than look elsewhere to benefit other countries other than their own. We would be more appreciative morally, than financing their pockets, and bringing down the economy more than it already is. There is a saying, If you are not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem and they would be wise to address their motives and greed. What the economy needs are more jobs for people. This will allow the unemployed to bring in money, pay their bills, feed their families, and spend so that we can bring ourselves out of this recession (depression) and yes, people would bring it out, if they had the money to do so.