Trump to help students?

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Boycott Walmart

Some people will be hurt short-term, but it's the right thing to do long-term.

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Always use the appropriate trap

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Who said it?

Can anyone guess who said the following? Who can you imagine saying it? If you know the answer, don't spoil it for others.

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy?"


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What's wrong with people?

For about the last 7 years, I had been going to a particular gas station regularly. On most occasions, I only put in $20 worth of gas. Unless I'm planning a long trip, this is my modus operandi. When pumping gas, I tend to stop the pump a cent or two before the amount I want, just to make sure I don't go over. Recently, for the first time in at least fifteen years, I wasn't paying close attention and I stopped the pump at $20.04.

I went in to pay, pulled out a stack of 20's, having just gone to the bank, handed the clerk, which I knew to be a partner in the business, $20 and asked him if he wanted the four cents. To my surprise, he said "Yes, please". He did not say, "If you have the change", or "Pay me next time" or any other reasonable thing one might expect from a clerk speaking to a long-time customer. Taken aback, I was left dumbfounded. I knew I didn't have any change, so I peeled off a $20 bill and handed it to him. He willingly gave me $19.96 change rather than opt for any other arrangement.

That was several months ago. Since then, I have avoided going to that particular gas station. The man's actions cost him one of his best customers--over four cents. An amount that I had over my many purchases given him far more than. He has lost my business forever.

Odd news

If a stranger sent you a post-dated cheque for $100,000 and a suicide note what would you do? It happened and the recipient calmly put the cheque in a safe until the date arrived and sure enough, the sender had committed suicide.

The oddest part of the story is how many times it repeated the opening sentence of the story--four times! The Story.

How much do wish to withdraw?

A Raleigh, North Carolina woman who left $400 in her bedroom last Friday that she had planned to deposit the next day, found it was missing. The only thing she could think of was that her two-year-old dog had eaten it. When she took the dog out for a walk on Saturday, she saw bits of the bills in the dogs "leavings". She washed them off with a hose and found parts of three $100 bills and five $20's. She said she hoped to find enough pieces to exchange them for cash.

I've heard of the goose that laid golden eggs, but this is ridiculous.

Augie, the canine ATM:

Money!

I've been putting off writing about the stock market, but I can't ignore it any longer. The economic news keeps getting worse and worse and the indexes keep going higher and higher. Something's got to give. I've been out of the market for several months, having exited before the major carnage started, but I've been reluctant to get back in the water, fearing there's sharks just below the surface.

It's possible that the market dropped too low and has corrected itself, but being a pessimist by nature, I am more prone to believe that the recent recovery is a "dead cat bounce". As far as I'm concerned, we have not yet seen the devastating effect all the layoffs are to have on the economy. Everyone is cutting spending. And that includes those lucky enough to have a job right now. They're scared #$!2^@# that they're next on the chopping block...and they probably are.

This sort of situation tends to be a catch-22. The more layoffs there are, the less spending there is. The less spending there is, the worse the economy gets. The worse the economy gets, the more layoffs there are.

I am going out on a not-so-long limb and declare that this thing will get much worse before it gets better. I know I'm not the only one predicting doom and gloom, but I have been posting, chatting, e-mailing and conversing about the emergence of third world countries and the possible economic collapse of the United States for almost 20 years now.

Having said that, I pray it doesn't turn out as bad as I have imagined it, for that would not bode well for the whole world and especially Canada, America's largest trading partner. One bright note is that the emergence of third world nations has provided a much needed diversification of trading partners. If an economic collapse of the U.S. had happened ten years ago, the entire planet might have become "the third world". Today, there's a few others to do business with.

One last thought, and remember, you heard it here first (at least if I am right), I see the American indexes dropping below their previous lows in the coming months. I'll join the market at that point because I expect slow and steady gains going forward for the foreseeable future. However, I'm not giving refunds if I'm wrong.

Is this the last frontier...

...of the women's movement? While so much has changed for women over the last 50 years or so, one thing that seems to be resisting tooth and nail is the notion that men are expected to pay for the cost of a date. I should mention that I am old school and have always picked up the entire cost of a date. It does, however, seem like an outdated thing to do, especially if the female is well-off financially. I'm sure the practise has its roots in the fact that very, very few women used to work, and therefore had no money. Don't you think it's time that we drop traditions that no longer make sense for the times? I was astounded at some of the answers people gave to the following question (I didn't ask it). (I am copying the question and answers verbatim and adding my comments in red.)

Question:

Why are guys supposed to pay for dates?

It just seems a little unfair, doesnt it?
I'm all for being a gentleman and stuff, but its just been on m mind...

Every girl's all about empowering women nowadays, so it just seems a little out of place...

Answers:

I guess it's just the traditional way and shows that the guy cares.

If paying shows caring, does it follow that when a woman doesn't pay, it shows she doesn't care?

because paying for the dates would be something a gentleman would do

Using the same logic, a woman who doesn't pay is not a lady?

Because he's the guy

The girl above thinks that picking up the tab is in the male genes.

Do you want to talk about unfair? Try having to pass a human through a little tiny hole later on in life. . Or have monthly visits taht make you all moody and irritable. You have got it made. next time you feel like complaining about it remember what we have to go through . Dont complain & just pay the bill =) plus if you do.. its so much more attractive. even though we are all about "empowering" we still like manners and having respect.

Wow. The girl above thinks it's only fair that males should pay for dates as compensation for the inconveniences that the female physiology possesses. Furthermore, every guy a girl dates should pay for the day she has to suffer the pain of passing some other guy's child. And since, according to her, it's also a matter of manners and respect, I think we can conclude that she rarely displays her manners or shows respect.

Because it'a woman who will have to pay for rasing a child alone, if anything goes wrong.

Interesting take. This young lady's idea of "a date gone wrong" is getting pregnant, having a child, and the father skipping town. And she demands a free meal just in case such unfortunate circumstances arise. I suppose that's fair compensation.

Oh, c'mon. Admit it; you just don't want to spend the money. It's okay to be a cheapskate if that's what you want. Don't blame it on the ladies.

What this woman believes is that a person who doesn't pay for a date is only a cheapskate if they don't have a vagina.

i like it its better that way its like their role they barely do anything nowadays anymore the least they could do is pick up the check

The lady above doesn't mind dating lazy, ne'er-do-well's, so long as they pick up the check. And it also sounds like she feels all men are lazy.

Q & A's from around the web

If you're in your car stopped in traffic, and look over and find a girl staring at you, and then when you look at her, she smiles, does that mean she wants you?

Yeah, she does. And $80.

The power of money...I mean kittens

I came across this and I just had to share it.

Doughnuts 'n stuff

I recently made a trip to Dallas, Texas. While clearing airport security at my stop-over in Detroit, I accidentally spilled some of the contents of the tray containing my metal objects, namely loose change. So as not to disrupt the flow of the line, I quickly got on my knees and collected all the coins I could see within my vicinity and put them in my pocket.

When I got to my destination, I reached into my pocket, grabbed the handful of (Canadian) coins I wouldn't be needing during my stay and placed them on a dresser. There they sat for 10 days.

When I picked them up as I was getting ready to head to the airport, I noticed a couple of odd-looking coins. My immediate thought was that the taco lady in Detroit had ripped me off, giving me "slugs" instead of quarters. I have a bad habit of never even glancing at my change whenever I'm handed it.

Upon closer inspection, they were each a 2-Euro coin. Four Euros! I'm not sure how much that is, but I seem to recall that the Euro is worth more than a U.S. dollar and a U.S. dollar is worth more than a Canadian dollar. Ok, I just checked. My little windfall has netted me just about $6 Canadian. Not bad for five seconds work. I'm going back to the airport tomorrow. This time I'm going to borrow a metal detector from the security staff.

By the way, I'm not sure if this is true of every Dunkin' Donuts shop in the U.S., but the one in the Memphis airport has the biggest apple fritters I've ever seen in my life. They are no less than three times the size of our Tim Horton's equivalent. I'm not exaggerating. I bought one and was expecting to pay like $3 for it or something, but it cost me no more than a regular doughnut, whatever that was. Amazing! It took me about 15 minutes to eat the damn thing which was delicious, and it sufficed as my lunch. What a deal!

Q & A's from around the web

we want to open our own pizza parlor.Where do we start?

You're going to need a lot of dough.