Category Archives: Current Affairs

Cash 4 Gold

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Since I work in Greensboro and have to be in different parts of the city on a regular basis I have ample opportunity to pass through intersections like the one at Merritt and High Point roads that feature strip malls with nail salons, pawn shops and "cash for gold" stores.  The picture below is of one of the kids that the "Cash 4 Gold" proprietor hires to dance in 90 degree heat while wearing a stormtrooper helmet painted gold.  Ed writes about the interesting economy we live in, epitomized by the cash 4 gold ops. Times are still tough people.

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Colonial Pipeline Tank Goes Kaboom

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Anyone who lives in the Piedmont Triad is familiar with Colonial Pipeline's tank farm hard by I-40 in Greensboro.  I drive by the tanks at least twice a day during my commute to and from the office so I've had ample occasion to wonder what would happen if one caught fire.  We found out this weekend when one of them was struck by lightning and went up like a roman candle, and from what I've seen the Greensboro Fire Department did a stellar job containing the blaze.

Something interesting I learned while monitoring WXII's Kenny Beck's coverage via Twitter: one tank contains 200,000 gallons of oil, which helps put the Gulf Oil spill in perspective. If the current low end of the estimate of 42 million gallons is correct then that would be like taking 210 of those tanks and dumping them in the Gulf.

23.3% of US Mortgages Underwater

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There is a stunning graph about foreclosures between 2005 and 2010 here.  One of the pieces of info contained therein is that 23.3% of ALL mortgages are underwater.  Not of sub-prime mortgages, or mortgages taken out during the boom, or mortgages in Florida, etc.  That's 23.3%, or nearly a quarter, of every single mortgage in the US of A is underwater.  The chart also shows that there will be over 1 million homes repossessed in the US in 2010.

A Pox on the Poor

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This won't surprise anyone: According to a recent study poor people spend more on lotteries than anyone else.

A recent study found that poor folks – households earning under $13,000 per year – spend about nine percent of all their income on lottery tickets, reported Consumerist.com…

In all, an estimated 20 percent of Americans are frequent players, shelling out about $60 billion a year.

The study claimed that the relatively low cost of lottery tickets – the so-called "peanuts effect" – helps explain the popularity of state lotteries.

The study also stated that poor people play because they believe a lottery ticket is their best, fairest shot at riches.

I will readily concede that it's unfortunate that the people who can least afford it play the lottery in a fruitless attempt to gain riches, but I still get irked when people call it a "tax on the poor."  Taxes aren't optional (in theory at least), and lotteries are most definitely optional.  Personally I think a better term for lotteries is a "pox on the poor."

American Idiot, er, Idol

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Our forefathers are surely spinning in their graves.  As bad as things are with the economy, the Oilf of Mexico and the myriad other problems in this country, I fear that the greatest harbinger of doom for our society is that there are literally millions of living rooms in America in which a terrible TV talent show evokes responses identical to this (warning: language that is adult and NSFW):

Battle of the Bandz

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Until a week ago I was blissfully unaware that these cheap doohickies called Silly Bandz even existed.  Then some friends with younger kids came over to the house and I innocently asked why each of the kids had approximately 673 rubber bands on their arms, and that's how I was exposed to the latest fad to hit America's shores.  Sadly, my teenage daughter's now into these new crack-like collectibles, and that's why I think the banning of these insidious trinkets in schools isn't enough.  I think we need to have a War on Bandz, and if not a full blown war spearheaded by the DEA, then at least a Battle of the Bandz headed by the Family Research Council.  This kind of thing is right up their alley.