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>I gassed up today and it cost me forty dollars. A few >weeks ago I would have choked on that amount to fill >the car's tank, but this was for my lawn mower! >Ouchy-ouch! > >I was out and around today, and I heard more than >worry from people about several things. > >I have a pellet stove to heat our house, and I picked >up a couple of tons for next winter at a good price. >Other people were there for the sale, and they are, of >course, happy that they chose a heating fuel with a >reasonably stable price. Yes, pellets go up every >year like most things, but in the 16 or 17 years that >I've used pellet fuel, the price has gone up from >$165/ton to the $245 I paid today. > >The price of gas and pellets isn't the point of this. >The same people I talked to about pellets see danger >ahead, where I hadn't thought about it. > >The rest of this is from my growlery, a Dickensian >place to be when you are out of humor. > >It's desperation they were talking about today. They >think things will go from the odd gasoline thief to >regular people taking up criminal measures to keep >their families through the winter. They were >suggesting that the guy at Agway keep a shotgun handy, >the thought of which had the guy stunned. > >I don't see where things are as bad in this country as >the media portrays them. Fuel is high for sure, but >there's no corn shortage owing to ethanol, no orange >juice shortage, and no rice shortage. Sam's Club is >rationing to 'only' 200 lbs per customer, per week? >Oh, Dear! What shall I do? > >If I tell my family we can only have about 28 lbs of >rice a day (56 lbs cooked) there will surely be panic >in this household. I alone can eat a quarter pound, >and of course I eat 250 or so meals a day. > >That's not entirely true, and thinking people should >realize that. Where exactly is the shortage when >anyone who wants to can buy 1600 rice portions (big >ones) each week of the world? Can you spell Rupert >Murdoch? How about Matt Drudge? Glen Beck, or ><shudder> Lou Dobbs? > >I find food prices down or even from a few years ago. >Dairy is certainly less, and most vegetables and >fruits. Beef is up, but lamb, pork and poultry are >down or unchanged. > >The big deal with the economy right now is the >secondary mortgage market, and that is made more >criminal by the fact that it has happened before. > >I wasn't old enough to vote when the so-called Savings >and Loan crisis occured, but it is exactly the same >thing that's happening today: mortgages badly >conceived, badly written, and badly executed. > >I do feel sad for the people who lose their homes, >because they were basically lied to. I can say they >should have known better, but that's not my place. > >It's the LENDERS who should have known better, given >the history of the S&Ls. It's the lenders who should >pay this time, not the taxpayers. They have made >their billions, or even trillions, so soak them this >time around. Just this once? > >Taxpayers, at the behest of Reagan, bailed the S&Ls to >the tune of about 160 billion of taxpayer dollars. > >That shouldn't happen a second time. The government >has to regain and maintain oversight on the mortgage >business, not give it a second bailout, and not >subject the public >another failure twenty years hence. > >Sorry, just talky tonight, and not leaving anything to >respond to. > >d

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