Blowing out my mind.

Today's Tids Issue 2,110
Opening Stuff:

Somehow this Tids got away from me. It is not light and airy as fluffy sheets drying in a April sea breeze. Somehow the travesties of today’s society – Roethlisberger, ass-holes in general and the out of control spending in Washington – got the best to me. I guess every once in a while I just have to be deadly serious.

If beef tenderloin is used in a cheese steak sandwich, is it called Phillie Mignon?

“This Just In” Department:
Federal Prosecutors have charged Goldman Sachs with civil fraud over sub-prime mortgages. Earliest reports say: “The SEC's suit strikes at a practice that was one of the main causes of the financial crisis: the creation of poisonous investments derived from home loans made to borrowers who couldn't afford the houses they were buying. The suit also drags into a legal maelstrom Paulson & Co., the firm of legendary hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made billions of dollars by betting against the housing market in the years before it went bust. He and his firm have not been accused of wrongdoing.“ Lots more to come on this one. Stay tuned.

The Question:
Name five movies based on comic book heroes.

The Headlines:
--Black Cloud From Iceland Continues To Smother Air Ops In Europe.
--0-Man Says Hospitals Receiving Medicare Or Medicaid Payments Can No Longer Deny Visitation Or Power Of Attorney Rights To LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bi-Sexuals, Transgenders)
--Stocks Pull Back After Google Profits Fail To Impress.
--Israel Bans Import Of iPads; Authorities Say Strong Wireless Signal May Be Security Problem.
--DNC To Pour $50 Million Into Fall Races.
--March Shows Gain For Multi-Family Housing Starts.
--4.8 Quake Hits Utah.

Back to More Stuff:

The decline of all great civilizations like Rome and England can eerily traced to these common evolutions: --The move from the individual to the collective. –A move away from personal responsibility to reliance on state. –A move towards more government control and less individual liberty. –Higher taxes and higher debt. --A move away from education and the arts towards military and war.

Outrage Department:
The just released police info on the most recent Roethlisberger travesty shows this giant football player to be more of a monster than the DA’s reluctant refusal to prosecute might indicate. In fact the info indicates a pattern for a well-oiled pimping operation. Apparently, the slimeball and his strong arms enter a bar and set up a base of operations in one section. Big Ben eyeballs the kids, in this case underage girls drinking, and sends the boys out to round up a handful to join them. They are the force fed shots all in the guise of good bar fun! Yippee. Apparently, at least in this case, the wobbliest is dragged to the men’s room soon to be joined by Ben. Shouts of “No!” don’t count. And Michael Vick gets 3 years for dog fighting!

I walked into a rest room at a fairly decent restaurant last night and noticed that the sink faucet was running full Blast. And it got me thinking about how much money businesses have to spend to protect themselves from the ass-holes of the world. And the irony of it all is that when something goes wrong as it invariably does when ass-holes are involved, it’s the ass-hole who gets the media sympathy. And maybe even a reality show!

And, I would never watch the Trump “You’re Fired” show simply because he enabled Blago. Who’s he going to have on next…Roethlisberger?

Providence Journal editorial this morning commenting on lavish public employee benefits, salary and extras like enormous unused sick day payouts, said: “And, it’s no wonder that Rhode Island’s state and local governments are in financial trouble. Practices that would have bankrupted private businesses continue in the public sector as if money were no object.” “As if money were no object.” That’s the attitude in Greece and one increasingly more pervasive in this US of entitlement.

Through the Same Eyes: Chapter 66 continues. –I looked over my shoulder as I ran into Kent’s house just behind him. My emotions were entirely out of control. Maggie was melting fast. Before we had taken a step inside the back door, I grabbed his arm and pulled him around so he was facing me. I looked up into his stony face. I wrapped my arms around him. He didn’t know what hit him as I kissed him hard. My tongue seeking his flitting in and out. My knees were weak with anticipations. I felt him coming alive. I ground into him. Lifted me up and practically flung me down to the massive sofa. At once we were savages. Out of control. Seeking. Grabbing. Satisfying.
I lay there gazing at the ceiling. I was so much one with the soft pillows beneath my partially nude body. My heart had finally slowed. I wanted to fall into a deep sleep, but my body wouldn’t let me. I turned over to caress Kent. But he didn’t respond. He was far away in the sleep of wonderful exhaustion.
I rose up upon my elbows and looked down the erotic scene, my legs askew, my skirt rumpled up. I smiled and remembered again. I finally sat on the edge of the sofa, smoothing down my skirt and neatening my blouse. Now I was achingly thirsty. One of Kent’s Diet Cokes even sounded good. As I entered the kitchen, I noticed something seemed different. Maybe he has a new cleaning woman I thought. I popped a can, and walked to the upstairs’ bathroom to clean up. Maybe I’ll take a shower I thought. I closed the door. I saw a bra hanging there on that hook at the top.

Isn’t ironic that European banks who basically scammed the people of Iceland and were expecting payback, got a black cloud instead…similar to the one under which they placed the financial security of good people who never knew what hit them.

For all of you concerned about the recent rash of giant earthquakes and the possibility that the entirety of the earth crusts are shifting, don’t. We had they same amount of big quakes in 2005. 5 and above quakes aren’t that unusual, they are just reported more now, and occur in centers of greater populations.

Reading Between the Lines Movie Reviews:
--Keeping up with the Jones looks like a winner to me. Demi and David (Moore and Duchovny) star as actors planted along with actor perfect teen children in a gated community neighborhood by marketers. The movie is one wonderful satire of over wrought consumerism. This “Perfect Family” buys everything and does every thing and soon the neighboring wanabees are aching to catch up or even surpass. It is viral marketing at its cleverest. I’m looking forward to it.
--Kick-Ass looks like a winner for followers of comic book based movies. This son of classics like Spiderman and Batman features a pint sized, foul mouthed (I can do without foul mouth preteens, thank you) preteen girl schooled in the art of weaponry and a hapless, scrawny high schooler suspected of being gay by the girl he desires. He, with absolutely no skills or superpowers decides to go into the superhero business hoping to impress said dream gal. He is soon joined by foul-mouth girl and her dad an ex cop out for vengeance against drug dealers. It works because the director plays it for what it is, sarcasm. Go, Nicholas Cage is in it and he needs the money for his foreclosed string of mansions.
--Death at a Funeral looks like a winner for those who like farcical slapstick as played by Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan. This is actually a remake of a still-alive on DVD British film of the same name. It’s really about the outrageous mishaps of an extended family getting together at the funeral of the family patriarch. Frankly, it looks so-so to me judging by the promo trailers. But, should do well at the box office.

That announcement by 0-Man about LGBT hospital rights says it all. The Government doesn’t need the Public Option to orchestrate health care. They just need to keep making Medicare and Medicaid payments to control the activities of all in the Health Care biz. My dad always said never take anything form the Government. On second thought though, since we the people are supply all of the money for the twin “M’s”, maybe we the people should have the greater say in the operations of health care. Makes sense to me.

I see where 0-Man is playing the JFK card again…announcing a trip to Mars by 2025, or some date far enough away from his reign that he will never be held accountable for it. One noted expert, Social Scientist Martin Gross, after hearing that says that he has determined that Obama must have some form of ADHD (He also blames Bush’s financial naïveté for the looming deficit catastrophe.). He notes that while the Americans continue their despondency over joblessness and declining value of assets among other economic goblins, The President is jumping into fantasy land with a mars mission. He notes that Obama has always shown little focus and is an opportunistic flitter. Gross has testified numerous times before Congress on “government inefficiency” and is a NYT’s best Selling Author – “National Suicide: How Washington is destroying the National Dream A to Z”, “The Political Racket”, “The Conspiracy of Ignorance” and “The End of Sanity”. Gross saves his harshest words for the piling up of the deficit saying “that if we can’t stop this worst administration in history the debt now at $11 trillion will balloon even beyond Obama’s own scary estimates of $21 Trillion by 2020. And, he says that there is no way to stop it short of citizen’s revolt and the dissolution of both parties.

A new scientific study says the brain can only really handle effectively two situations or tasks at a time.

The Answer:
The movies that came quickest to me were Superman, Batman and Spiderman. Then there is Ironman, The Green Lantern, The Lone Ranger, Daredevil, Hulk, Blade, Hellboy and Phantom. What ever happened to Captain Marvel. Shazam!

Off to the Weekend:

Doesn’t anybody get mad any more? Woods will go back to making another billion or so. Roethlisberger will continue to throw game winning passes to the cheers of fawning fans. Blago will receive sympathy from the enabling reality show audiences. And Congress will continue to screw us. Other than that, have a great weekend.