Going To Hell In A Very Stylish Handbasket.
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I find the older I get, the less easily shocked I am and the more easily outraged I become. I don't think it's so much me getting older as it is the times becoming more outrageous.
Nixon's Head: "My fellow Earthicans, we enjoy so much freedom it's almost sickening. We're free to choose which hand our sex-monitoring chip is implanted in. And if we don't want to pay our taxes, why, we're free to spend a weekend with the Pain Monster."
Pain Monster: "See you April 15th, folks!"
- Futurama,
"A Taste of Freedom"
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V
"The most imporant thing about money is to maintain its stability... You have to choose between trusting the natural stability of gold and the honesty and intelligence of members of the government. With due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold." - George Bernard Shaw
"There is in the nature of government an impatience of control that disposes those invested with power to look with an evil eye upon all external attempts to restrain or direct its operations. This has its origin in the love of power. Representatives of the people are not superior to the people themselves." - Alexander Hamilton - Federalist Papers, 1787.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
- attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic" (1776)
"If there is any hope for America, it lies in revolution. And if there is any hope for revolution, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara." - Phil Ochs
Women are 4 times more likely to be the victims of a sexually motivated murder than men, but men are 10 times more likely to be the murderers. That's just the way it is.
"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?" -The Buddha
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” -Teddy Roosevelt
"Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in
his facts." - Bernard Baruch
"Monkeys rule."
Cost of the War in Iraq
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"El diablo sabes mas por viejo que por diablo" - old Mexican proverb
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Achtung! Das machine ist nicht für gerfingerpoken und mittengraben. Ist too easen für schnappen der pringenwerk, blowenfusen, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht für gewerken by dast dumkopfen - das rubbernecken sightseeren ban keepen das hands in der pocketsen, relaxen und vatchen das blinkenlights.
links:
Grandfather Economic Report
Tom Paine
The Nation
RGE Monitor
The Economist
Landover Baptist Church
The Onion
Ernie's House of Whoop Ass
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Wed, Feb 20 2008
SIGNPOSTS ON THE ROAD TO HARDER TIMES
The top gadget catalog and the bottom gadget catalog companies have both admitted to insolvency and filed for bankruptcy. It is a very telling sign that providers of hideously overpriced and mostly useless high-end "woo-factor" gizmos (digital water sportsbottle for people too stupid to drink when thirsty) and providers of amazingly cheap and ludicrously useless chinese crapola (nothing says classy like a peeing dog door stop!) have both gone belly-up at the same time, proving that the US consumer is shopped out for real.
Sharper Image, Lillian Vernon File for Bankruptcy as Sales Slow
(Bloomberg) -- Sharper Image Corp., the seller of $300 electric shavers and $1,999 massage chairs, and catalog retailer Lillian Vernon Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection after struggling with declining sales.
Sharper Image, which will shed 90 of its 184 stores and is seeking a $60 million loan from Wells Fargo & Co., plunged as much as 80 percent in Nasdaq trading today. Closely held Lillian Vernon said it plans to sell assets after revenue trailed its forecasts and costs rose.
Sharper Image has ``tired'' stores and products, said retail consultant Emanuel Weintraub. Consumers are also buying fewer gadgets as the economy slows, he said. Lillian Vernon's products include $14.98 personalized Easter baskets, $34.98 quilted tote bags and $2.98 shamrock key chains.
``In the world of providing products that consumers don't have to replenish, you have to keep your merchandise fresh,'' said Weintraub, chief executive officer of Emanuel Weintraub Associates Inc. in Fort Lee, New Jersey. ``With everything going on in the world right now, consumers are less frivolous than they would be at a different time.''
Sharper Image targets wealthier customers with fewer, more- expensive products, while Lillian Vernon specializes in gifts at lower prices, said Weintraub.
Sharper Image dropped $1, or 70 percent, to 44 cents at 2:42 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
`Severe Liquidity Crisis'
The retailer filed papers requesting approval of the loan, which is being arranged by Wells Fargo Retail Finance LLC. Sharper Image asked for permission to borrow as much as $35 million on an interim basis.
``Sharper Image is in a severe liquidity crisis,'' Rebecca Roedell, chief financial officer of San Francisco-based Sharper Image, said in court papers filed last night with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. ``The foregoing has been compounded by the ever-tightening and volatile credit and financing markets.''
The chain, which competes with Brookstone Inc. and New York- based Hammacher Schlemmer, has posted 11 straight quarters of declining sales and ousted founder Richard Thalheimer in 2006 after losing more than three-quarters of its stock-market value.
Sharper Image said in court papers it was hurt by ``negative publicity'' as it fought lawsuits over its Ionic Breeze air purifiers. The company has lost money in 11 of the past 13 quarters.
Sale Negotiations
The retailer, which listed assets of $251.5 million and debt of $199 million, is in negotiations to sell its most unprofitable stores and inventory.
Sharper Image said last week that it replaced Chief Executive Officer Steven Lightman with turnaround specialist Robert Conway.
Lillian Vernon, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, said it hired Gruppo Levey & Co. to look into a sale. The company is seeking bankruptcy protection because of lower-than-expected revenue, increased costs and a lack of funding.
The catalog retailer listed assets and debt of between $1 million and $100 million in documents filed today, also in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington. The company said it has between 5,001 and 10,000 creditors.
Lillian Vernon's parent, Sun Capital Partners is a private investment firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts. It didn't file for bankruptcy.
The first case is In re Sharper Image Corp., 08-10322, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
The second case is In re Lillian Vernon Corp., 08-10323, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
posted by JDoe at 12:41:34 PM |
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