dynagirl

When Max Frost speaks, people listen!

Far from Wall Street, in a suburb of Green Bay, investment adviser Max Frost gave some bold advice on this day a year ago.

In a column for his local newspaper, Frost took note of September’s cursed history. Given the unwillingness of banks to lend money, he warned at the time, “Houses won’t be built, businesses won’t expand, consumer goods will not be purchased.”

His conclusion: Sell. “If you’re not shorting this market, at least put some of it in cash. You can always buy it back.”

Today, Frost remains pessimistic, especially after stock prices kept climbing over the past few months.

“This market has gone up like a bad moonshot, without enough money to get to the moon,” he said in an interview last week. “Everything’s gotten too highly valued.”

It is, after all, almost September, Frost observed: Look out below.

I HAVE A LEVEL OF SOPHISTICATION THAT SO FITTING WITH MY BEAUTY

RT @markosm Every fucking time. Not an accident. RT @murshedzaheed On Fox: Mark Sanford “(D)” holds press conference http://bit.ly/yCZaz

Greetings from “the fightin’ second!” RT @triumph68 Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on #maddow

@triumph68 I dunno but our avatars look green…. DUDE.

RT In Iran, “Pretty” Is Sometimes The Protest http://bit.ly/ArVk1
#iranelection #GR88

RT @triumph68 RT @rkref RT @slbbw: I hope photog, Amir Sadeghi, gets award for this photo. Got me! http://twitpic.com/7c85l #iranelection

RT @rkref RT @dmiller23: RT @Sculptur: Spread this pictures for everybody to see what’s going on: http://www.flickr.com/photo... #Iran

Good news for your eyes, at least, in this economy; in amongst the list of twelve brands likely to disappear:

Crocs footwear: The decline in stock price from $72 per share in late 2007 to $2 today, ongoing financing issues, consumer belt-tightening and the end of a fad, leads to to 24/7 Wall Street’s declaration that Crocs won’t make it through the year.

Congress passed a consumer-protection law in August, to try to stop the flow of poisoned toys from China — but with no exemptions for small businesses, every single toy sold needs an expensive test to prove that it doesn’t kill you.

Read these, and go call your congresspeople.

open letter from Etsy.com

Endangered Whimsy
Gallery of soon-to-be illegal toys from Etsy crafters

Fashion Incubator

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/:

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.

“Next time, go to a compounding shop and ask for ‘Cipro or Zithromax, the BABY dose, if you know what I’m sayin’”

I got my domain back, and we got our country back! Now comes the hard work — it’s time to redesign this site already.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Islamic Sharia courts in Britain now have legally binding decisions. Guess the UK’s off my list of emergency escape-to countries.

If I were the button-wearing type, I’d wear these. There’s lots more. And the dude! Too bad there’s not a similar Achievers edition.

I want a frakkin’ bumper sticker.

…and apparently I’m not the only one smelling a classic rat fink bait-and-switch.

Since John McCain voted against equal pay for women, will he offer Sarah Palin only $153,915? That’s 75.5% of the US Vice Presidential salary–the current US gender pay gap.

Then again—with such a thin résumé… I’d call it more than commensurate with experience. Lucky for her the Deocrats finally got the minimum wage raised a little bit.

Seriously, am I the only person who picked up their New Yorker, saw the cover, laughed, and turned the page?

The editorial cartoon artwork pokes fun not at the Obamas but the people *cough Fox news* who painted this false picture. And to all the hand-wringing pundits who worry aloud saying, “well, I got it, but will Middle America get it? How will this play in the midwest?” Hey, pal, the average IQ doesn’t drop 50 points once you cross the New York or D.C. city limits; on the contrary, most data swings it the other way.*

* disclaimer re: IQ testing controversial, data inconclusive, blah blah blah.

I will probably not call you “doll,” or “hon” (that’s for the Mister), but…

I WILL call you “sweetie” at some point. It’s inevitable. It means I think you’re nice (and nothing more, nothing less). It may even mean I suck at remembering names, but probably it just means that I want us to be friends. And if you call me “sweetie”? I will not think less of you at all; probably, just the opposite.

Thanks, Sweetie!

and why the is hell this even an “issue” when we’re in a shameful war and the economy’s in the shitter (gee, could they be related?) and this country has a whole lotta work to do…? Embarrasing!

…are two things things younger than John McCain.

OK, so these “economic stimulus” tax rebate checks* are a dumb enough idea, when we have major highway bridges collapsing, record potholes, a five-point-three-trillion!-dollar debt, a ridiculous billion-dollar a day war going on, fifty-eight million citizens without health care, a sad education system, yadda-yadda-yadda…

…but John McCain and (and I didn’t know this until researching just now) Hillary Clinton’s summer gas-tax-vacation idea is so dumb I can’t believe anyone even said it out loud. I just ran the numbers through Excel, and not paying gas tax for sixteen weeks would save me—OMG! SIXTEEN DOLLARS! AND FORTY-NINE CENTS!! Even adding the miscellaneous regional trips we’ll be taking this summer, around 1225 miles, would only add nine more dollars to my pocket. This plan would surely fix everything with the economy. Meanwhile, it’d cost the country about ten billion dollars, which is about what it would cost to provide health care for thirty percent of the country’s uninsured.

Everyone I’ve talked to is going to either pay off a debt, or put it in savings / investment (either all my friends are smart or they’re lying; probably the former). Isn’t spending beyond our means how we got into this mess in the first place?

Better than the current one, maybe, but not so awesome.

Oh, snap!

Anyone wanna get a pool going on how many 96-pt. headlines tomorrow read “AL-O-BAMA!!”?

The Republican candidates are all Buffy villians. Seriously, dude. That is some scary-ass shit.
via Quiddity

Piano-playing cats, hand-holding otters go on strike in support of the writers. Awesome also for Chocolate Rain in funereal chello and a scab cat.

Somebody asked for nun jokes on ask.me, and my comment lasted all of FIVE MINUTES:

Have you heard the one about the group of women who devote their lives to the service of others, work for one of the richest organizations in the world but face poverty in retirement, and are the subject of nothing but jokes in modern American culture? Wooh hoo! That’s a knee-slapper!

U.S. Transportation secretary says that bikes (and feet!) aren’t transportation items OK, I know mine’s more like a dust and spider-web collector, but I know what it’s purpose is…