Bill's Big Diamond Blog

One in Four...

One in four American children are now fed with the assistance of Food Stamps. Is this the country we want to be? We need a jobs program.

The Difference a Financial Collapse Makes...

What a Thanksgiving! 

Standing over the stove, my sister’s partner, always the most conservative member of our clan, asked me how business was doing.  I didn’t want to be a damper on the festivities, but I thought I could say something general, so I mumbled, “Well, with the economy being the way it is…”

He interrupted me, saying, “It’s not the economy—“

Both of us picked up, in unison “It’s the financial system!”

Then, I almost fell over as he revealed, “I’ll tell you something,. I don’t think I’m a capitalist anymore.  I think we need a seriously regulated economy, so this will never, ever, be allowed to happen again.  It wasn’t the failure of a few… I mean, everyone’s looking for a perpwalk, for somebody to blame, but it’s the whole system that caused this to happen.”

This Thanksgiving was the holiday when I stopped being known as the family party pooper.  

Unfortunately, it’s taken a lot of pain—and lots more to come—for the lure of easy, unregulated financial deals and no government taxation on their profits to become apparent for what it has always been— a shell game for the advantaged to steal from common folk.

After a conversation about the path to ruin we’ve all just traveled, it was me, for a change, who ended up cutting us short. “Let’s move on to more pleasant topics.  We don’t want to put a damper on the day.”

If you live long enough, you get to experience-and do- a lot of things you never imagined.

College Republicans Ready for 'Battle'

Price of admission to a College Republican gathering: $250.

Open Bar at a College Republican convention event: $50

Max Blumenthal’s “Generation Chickenhawk” video at the convention: Priceless

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Joey Chestnut has brought home the bacon, er, hot dogs. See Richard Sandomir’s TV Sports piece on the return of the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Championship to the USA. An American once again wears the Mustard Yellow Belt! All hail.

One eater was introduced as “a vegetarian who
only eats meat in major competitive eating
contests.” Competitors were said to be looking to
open with a burst of consumptive speed or that
critical “12-to-13 dog minute.” Fans clapped
their mustard-yellow Thunderstix. To the
multiple record-holder Patrick Bertoletti, the
barker/analyst Richard Shea said, without
breaking into giggles: “You went head to head
with Joey Chestnut and beat him in a jalapeño
pepper-eating contest. What do you bring from
that contest?”

PS- If you make the pilgrammage to Coney Island, remember that this is the last summer it will be the amusement paradise we all know and love. A developer of questionable background is clearing out all the carneys at the end of the season in favor of a huge project. Each carney who signed a lease for the last summer has reportedly signed a gag agreement in order to retain their lease.

From Wikipedia: Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert, whose family had owned the gritty but storied park since 1962, sold the site to developer Thor Equities in November 2006 for an unspecified amount. Thor Properties proposed a $1.5 billion renovation and expansion of the Coney Island amusement area to include hotels, shopping, movies, an indoor water park and the city's first new roller coaster since the Cyclone. The developers hope to start construction in 2007 and complete the project by 2011. As part of the renovation, they announced that Astroland would close by the end of 2007.

PPS— Despite the grand plan, many wonder if the developer plans to gut the building zone and ultimately hold up the city with the threat of leaving a blighted area— unless major zoning variances are granted to put up the most profitable possible development.

Oh God, Get This Schmidt OFF of Me!

All right, enough with the doom and gloom.

Let’s take a moment to laugh at the misfortune of others.

Many thanks to one Florida blogger, Sinfonian, who has a feature on his Blast Off! blog, the Daily Schadenfreude.

My favorite: March 15…lots of soda water, Jean. Lots.

h/t The Politico

Election day Advice

Election Day advice:

1) Read FDL, who advise us all to remain calm as they prepare to throw down with CNN in the nation’s capitol.

2) Vote. Get that out of the way.

3) Call your radio station with the advice that anyone receiving threatening robocalls about not being registered at their address should ignore them. This tactic is being employed to prevent voters from excercising their rights.

4) Help GOTV. Getting out the vote is how we turn this country around. Call whoever you support and help them pull voters to the polls.

5) Party like it’s 1999 tonight. Now matter how it turns out, this will feel better than most of the years since then.

Offbeat News Indeed

It's all fun, but the best part of this AP story is buried at the bottom.

WESTLAKE, Ohio-A bar waitress checking to see if a
customer was legally old enough to drink looked down
to see a familiar photo.

It was her own.

The 22-year-old waitress, whose name was not released,
called police last week and said she had been handed her
own stolen driver's license by a woman trying to prove she
was 21.
The woman, who became suspicious of the delay as the
waitress went to call police, fled the Moosehead Saloon,
but her companion provided her name.
Maria Bergan, 23, of Lakewood, was charged Sunday night
with identity theft and receiving stolen property. She was
arrested at her home in suburban Cleveland.

OK, so here’s my question. Why is Ms. Bergan, 23, walking around using the license of a 22 year-old waitress to prove she’s over 21? Inquiring minds want to know.