a99kitten's Musings

…fuck you.

WASHINGTON — The United States Department of Agriculture, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by WSBTV.COM, has released hundreds of pages of new evidence in its high-profile investigation of NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

The newly released documents include summaries of interrogations conducted by federal investigators with member of Vick’s dogfighting ring and with confidential informants in the case.

Among the most noteworthy revelations listed in the papers:

A confidential informant told investigators Vick drowned dogs, shot others to death and killed “them with a shovel.” Vick was also accused of getting an “adrenaline high while killing the dogs.”
/em>

Google it. Easy to find. But most people would love to ignore or worse yet…not even care.

To know me is to know I like animals more than people on a large scale. Of course I have people I consider friends and care about. But the rest of the world is on their own. So I don’t want to hear your BS stories or sick jokes about animal deaths, hunting, etc. And you can pity and whine about the people that commit suicide because they were bullied or blah blah blah and my response is chicken shit cop out. The end. There IS always another solution and if you didn’t chose it – that’s your choice. But I know I’m heartless like that.

But the headlines I see for stories I refuse to read anymore and the emails I receive (from the animal rights groups who it deliberately for shock value) upset me beyond belief. I won’t repeat them here as they sicken me, other than to say tonight my husband texts me right as I’m getting ready for bed (he’s out of town, not texting me from the next room) about a story that I hadn’t heard yet – thanks. I turn on the TV to watch Big Bang Theory to make me laugh before bed so I feel better and as the TV is turning on, it’s a news commercial break with the headline/story that he just texted me. Great. Why do you do that? Do you not know me??

I have woken up for the past week every single night due to a headline in a tweet that I saw, that I didn’t even click on, and have no details about the story other than the headline was so damn horrific it made me cry. So I’m tired. But can’t get the picture out of my head…every single night…right around 3am…and then 4am..and so on.

And the sports news, who I turn to for relief from the real world of crap news, just can’t say enough about the greatness of Michael Vick. Fuck Michael Vick. I hope he gets hit by a bus. Clear enough for ya?

I want my own island. With no news. No people. No reason to make me cry.

Sorry for my rant and foul language…but it is my blog…and I’m sad and tired. And sometimes it helps to talk about stuff…and if not talk, then write. I doubt it will help me sleep or forget this time. But I’ve tried.

“You’re all pretty much fu****. You don’t know it yet. But, you are the NINJA generation. No Income, No Job, No Assets. You got a lot to live for too. Someone reminded me the other evening that I once said greed is good. Now it seems its legal. But folks, its greed that makes my bartender buy three houses he can’t afford with no money down. And its greed that makes your parents refinance their two hundred thousand dollar house for two fifty. Then they take that extra fifty and go down to the mall. They buy a plasma TV, cell phones, computers, a SUV, hey why not a second home while we are it, cause gee whiz we all know the prices of houses in America always go up, right? And its greed that makes the government of this country cut interest rates down to one percent after 9/11 so we can all go shopping again. And they got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credits, CMOs, CDOs, SIVs, ABS . You know I honestly think that there’s maybe only seventy five people in the world who know what they are. But I’ll tell you what they are – WMDs, weapons of mass destruction! That’s what they are.

Its clear as a bell to those who pay attention, the mother of all evil is speculation, leveraged debt. The bottom line is borrowing to the hilt. And I hate to tell you this, it’s a bankrupt business model. It won’t work. Its systemic, malignant, and its global, like cancer. It’s a disease and we got to fight back. How are we going to do that? How are we going to leverage that disease back in our favor? Well I’ll tell you. Three words, “Buy my book!” Prices and profits work.”

Another great speech given by Gordon Gekko, in the new movie – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

I liked the movie. I didn’t love it like I love the first one but I loved every second GG was on the screen. And I think Josh Brolin did a great job. And I didn’t even hate Shia even though I could have done with a little less him and a little more Michael Douglas.

I was worried Oliver Stone would try to make this some huge morality tale since Hollywood loves to blame Wall Street, the big, bad corporate monsters and rich people (unless you are rich from making movies or music that is) for all that is bad and evil in the world. And Hollywood is full of morality…Plus Stone seems so shocked, in every recent interview anyway, that he unleashed GG on the world (really Oliver?) when he meant to show him as a villain (more people love Darth Vader than Luke so he should have known that.)

But he didn’t – not too much anyway. A lot of green energy plugging. I guess this was the only way to make the new young buck trader “likable” to the masses. “See Wall Street isn’t so bad when they want to bring cold fusion into the world! But shale oil – those guys are bastards.” Makes Shia’s character’s greed and drive acceptable. Kinda like when Al Gore pumps alternative energy…the areas/companies he has stock in that is…

The main plot centered around a Bear Stearns/Lehman Brothers-like take down followed up by the mass banking and financial markets free-fall and hysteria that came after. If you have read anything about those firms, this plot will not seem far-fetched at to you. At all.

Stone threw in some quite typical macho, alpha-male scenes but guess what – those guys generally ARE like that. So again, quite believable. Some of the special effects which I can only assume were included to help people figure stuff out (give them pictures = easier!) were needless, in my opinion. Felt they were more distracting than helpful. But I guess every single movie ever made now has to have some kind of digital effect.

Some fun cameos by financial and news people. And a few from the first movie which were funny. As well as a song thrown in as a throw-back! But alas, no Frank.

One very good thing explained was GG’s jail sentence and the time line from the first movie to this movie. I have complained forever that there is NO way he would be in jail all this time for insider trading – even with the WORST lawyer which you know he didn’t have. So thank you Oliver for making that more clear. I find it highly offensive and disgusting that anyone convicted of a white-collar crime would receive more actual jail time than a person who commits a violent crime – but people need their bogeymen and their heads on pikes.

Martha Stewart received 5 months jail time and 2 years probation (29 months total of punishment) for what was basically insider trading (the actual charges were different I think but that’s what she did.) This was a pretty small trade in her own account where she had insider knowledge due to the fact she was friends with the CEO. The amount of people that do what she did every day without getting sent to jail would probably piss some people off…the ones who didn’t get the insider info and act on it that is. I am not saying it wasn’t wrong and she shouldn’t be punished somehow. But jail time?

Michael Vick got 21 months of jail and 2 months home confinement ( 23 months total punishment) for his hands-on part in a dog-fighting ring. I recognize that I have a very strong opinion on this that not every one shares, but really? 23 months in total for showing us how cruel and inhuman you actually are? And then back to his high-flying football career being a hero to kids. Puke.

Bernie Madoff got 150 years for his multiple financial crimes. Horrible – yes. Deserves punishment – of course. But 150 years? How many murderers, rapists and pedophiles get off with 5 or 10 years – if that? But again – a head was needed, his rolled. End of story.

I am of the opinion that white-collar criminals should be made to do more community service as sentences. Real service – not give a lecture to at-risk kids. And no – not live in their penthouses while they do it. But how much are these guys fined for their crimes and hand over to the government? Use some of that to get them to work and keep them in a different facility (not tax-payer funded.) They are incredibly smart guys, make them use it for “good”.

But thrown in with drug dealers, gang members, rapists? No – sorry (contrary to popular belief they do not all go Camp Fed.) And those same violent criminals should be in jail longer than ANY white-collar criminal. My personal opinion only. But it’s my blog so my opinion rules :)

Anyway, went a little off-topic….back to the movie! If you liked the first Wall Street at all, then you will probably like this one. And there are so few movies pumped out nowadays that are worth the price of admission and hassle of going to the movies (rather than wait for DVD) to me.

I did feel the ending was a cop out. I wonder if Stone didn’t actually know where to go with it to keep morality in play? But I think he knew what people wanted and knew it was going to be hard to present it. So he went typical Hollywood. I won’t spoil what happens because I did find myself wondering most of the way through. It’s the last bit of the movie so it’s ok I suppose.

All in all, this one is not as fun and crazy as the first one but hey – this isn’t the 80s anymore.

…I want to punch my husband right in the face.

He’s quite lucky that I have pretty darn good control of my emotions/inclinations/etc…

I originally posted this back in January….anticipating and excited about the new movie back then! Still excited! Sadly, I won’t be able to see it tonight or this weekend as I can’t really leave Storm that long since he still needs to wear his cone if I’m not right there watching him (so he doesn’t pull out his surgical staples.) Going to coordinate a time early next week though!!

The stock market sure welcomed GG back with open arms today though ;)
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You know…if you read this speech…if you truly listen to what he is saying…he is right. Look past the trendy “hate Wall Street” rhetoric being bandied about by our current President and media. Look at what is being said here and think about what is *truly* being said….

Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company. That’s right — you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. (applause) Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.”

This movie was done in 1985. Still holds true today. One could argue that you can apply this to all of the life-long politicians that have never held a real job, a job where they have been responsible for creating anything, for making sure payroll is met, making sure that shareholders receive a return on their investment. They collect their giant salaries (look it up) and benefits that our paid by us…the taxpayers. Do you really think they are any better than the purported “criminals” of Wall Street or the banks? Really? If you do, than you are truly naive…

Are there criminals on Wall Street? Of course. Are there criminals in every single line of work? Yes. Are there criminals serving as your Congressman, as your Senator, or even your City Manager? Yes. If you don’t think so…you are truly naive…

This country was created, built on and made into the greatest country on earth because of the entrepreneurial drive to be successful. And our current government wants to destroy that. Put everyone on a level playing field. Everyone doesn’t belong on a level playing field. Face facts – there are smarter people, harder-working people…not everyone “deserves” the same thing. Period.

One of my most favorite movies ever…

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/110553/jackpot-winners-just-as-likely-to-go-bust

This article is about a study done on lottery winners and how they go bankrupt too…just a bit later.

While I do believe that on occasion a lucky winner who spent $1 or $5 on lotto tickets every so often and can win and – bang! Wow! Lucky! Most people spend a lot of money, money that can probably not afford, buying tickets in search of the big payout. Am I against the lotto? No. Not at all. But it should be seen as a FUN thing. With disposable income spent on it. Like Bingo or something. Just like any form of gambling. Not your rent money, not your grocery money, not your kid’s lunch money.

The main reason, in my personal opinion, that lotto winners (or any type of big payout really – insurance settlement anyone?) still end up with nothing is that they simply don’t know how to manage money. They don’t know how to plan for the future. Oh kinda like people who took more and more equity lines out on their homes when they had no business accessing that money.

What were they thinking when they did this? Were they thinking how they were going to pay off their home anytime in the future? Or using the money to improve their home’s value? Were they doing the math on how they were going to pay it back? Quite a few took the cash and bought newer cars, bigger TVs, nice vacations and more crap. I’m all for shopping and keeping the global economy alive and well – if you can afford it. And definitely not if somehow my tax dollars is going to have to bail your irresponsible ass out some day.

I know there were plenty of unscrupulous mortgage brokers getting these loans approved but at the end of the day – you signed the papers and took their money and spent it. You are responsible for your own condition. Period. No one else is. Unless you are 5 years old. If you didn’t understand the ARMs and interest rates then you should not have signed those papers.

The study has policy implications for governments deciding how to help heavily indebted people who are struggling during economic downturns, Hoekstra says. It appears the simplest solution — giving them cash — doesn’t enhance longer-term financial stability, and only postpones, rather than avoids, bankruptcy. The lottery findings are consistent with a 2007 research paper that showed consumers initially used their 2001 federal rebate checks to reduce debt, but eventually debt returned to its pre-rebate level.

“Our research suggests that perhaps there is something more systematic about the types of people who get themselves into financial trouble — and the appropriate policy prescription for helping them out is going to be considerably more complex than giving them additional resources,” says Hoekstra.

This is fact. You cannot give people money and expect them to fix their own problems and improve their lives. And you can’t give people something for nothing. See the never-ending money pit of government entitlement programs for proof.

Giving people money for, or cutting what they owe on, their mortgage loans is not the solution. And penalizing and vilifying the banks while allowing the loan holder to skate is BS. And having more and more government control over banks and lending is a GIANT mistake. See any government body for their efficiency and ability to get anything done.

So play the lotto if you have a spare $2 in your pocket. I do when it gets up to the giant gazillion dollar pots! I love fantasizing about my 100 acres in Wyoming and shopping trips! It’s fun. But if you are going in and spending $20-$50 a week (and I’ve been there behind the people buying them) in hopes of hitting it rich…well…I sure as hell hope you don’t have a mortgage loan you are defaulting on or kids who need new shoes.

This was a line in a book I just read. Fiction, crime-drama, about a psycho serial killer who not only rapes women but murders them slowly after torturing them. You know, light beach reading. But I’m sorry – what animal isn’t better than that? The cockroach in the storm drain is better than that.

Frankly, that is an insult to animals. Animals don’t rape, torture and murder just for sport. For the sheer psycho pleasure in it. After yesterday and today’s stuff on the internet about the girl who threw the puppy in the river for fun – is there really any question? And I’m sure she is not the only one guilty of horrific acts – just the one with a friend so stupid that she/he videoed it and put it on the internet. I can only hope she is tracked down and shot between the eyes by a crazed PETA fanatic. No, I’m not kidding. And no, I don’t think that’s harsh. People like that don’t deserve to breathe air.

I wish I could unread and unknow about this. I decided a couple weeks back not to read any more news where the headlines are obviously upsetting. I already know there is a lot of evil and shit in this world. A lot of pure, evil scumbags. I don’t need to be reminded of it. It replays in my head over and over. I needed a 3 hour hike today to try and get it out of my head and re-see nature and beauty. It worked. For those 3 hours.

Rapists, pedophiles, murderers – anyone who garners pleasure from harming another deserves to just be killed. And no, not just to humans. Statistically proven that many a child abuser, wife abuser, serial killer has started by harming animals. And guess what – they can’t be fixed. They don’t actually change inside. Period. F them. They don’t deserve any help. Or sympathy. Or even oxygen.

My dogs would stand up and fight to the death to protect me. And they love me wholeheartedly no matter what. I pity the person than ever tried to hurt them. Momma bear don’t play.

People can disagree about animals being “family members”. Animals not being as important as people in this world. That’s up to you. But to get pleasure of any kind from deliberately harming animals (yes, including sport hunters and fishermen here) – you have a screw loose. It’s just a matter of how many. I could go on and rant forever about this but I won’t. I could start on about vigilante justice, but I won’t (here and now anyway.)

Maybe the best super power would be to be a Batman-type. But for animals. And even more hardcore than the grumpiest version of him. He kills bad guys. He knows that sometimes you have to. Start with poachers, abusers, the little blonde bitch in the video. How could the world NOT be a better place without this kind of scum in it? Riddle me that Batman.

But animals definitely do have a flaw, their true flaw is that they sometimes trust humans unconditionally. Huge mistake.

~ begin rant

My husband and I started a company back when he was still in business school and I worked at a hedge fund. Our “office” was our tiny little guest room in the apartment we rented in Palo Alto between my office and his school. He and another co-founder came up with the idea(s) for the business and started implementing them and I handled all the administration to set it up. Was teeny – not too big of a big deal time-wise for me. Helped with customer service a bit too but then we hired someone (thank god!)

Now, at my “day job” I was the officially the ‘Executive Assistant to the Managing General Partner’. Now, what I actually did was all the typical exec assisitant stuff for him (ever see The Devil Wears Prada? Those were typical days and requests – really rich people are odd ducks) and then I handled his personal finances (rich people have really messed-up complicated finances), managed his house staff, managed his multiple homes, travel, travel and dealing with schools for his 4 kids, communication between he and his ex-wife (that was fun), finding new nannies, Investor Relations for all of the various funds, Portfolio Accounting for all of the various funds, IT for the office, HR crap for the office, dealing with a 2nd ex-wife, and general office manager type stuff. A 10-hour day was a short day. I only outline to show I was pretty busy already but also know how to do a range of jobs…

Anyway, when it came time to get some funding, I set up a meeting between my husband (actually fiancee at the time) and my boss. He was stressed since he had no business plan put together and I told him – he doesn’t care about paperwork. He wants you to go in there and explain how you are going to build a business and make money. Very simple. It took quite a while to convince him that he would be OK. To know him now, you wouldn’t actually think he would have been insecure about that. But he when in without a “on paper” business plan and it worked and he got seed money plus my boss introduced him to other people with seed money (some of those same investors invested in another company of ours more recently) who then got him in with the biggest angel investor in Silicon Valley. And that investor then got him in with Sequoia. So while I’m sure my husband could have done all of this on his own, he didn’t. I helped.

I worked not only full-time at my job (my hours were really more like 7am – 7pm) but I then came home (and then to our temporary office space that we got as we grew and grew) and did all the admin work for our new company. Plus all the bill paying, house keeping, personal errands for us both, blah blah. Then husband asked that I start full time which meant I would quit my old job. Whoa. That was hard since I really, really liked my job, my boss, my co-workers and the entire industry. And my boss preferred I stay. But he understood. Sometimes I wonder if that was the wisest choice I ever made…but I did leave.

Our company was growing fast and our COO (who came from a big company background and not a start-up culture) thought having the CEO’s wife (we were married by now) do HR might not be so great since employees want to feel comfortable with HR. We didn’t want to foster a kindergarten/baby-sitting type of HR culture and didn’t make any changes right away besides hire someone to work in HR with me but eventually the COO got his way and hired a Director of HR from another big company. Who then filled out his department of 5 (including him.) I still had tons to do without HR (did stuff in Finance, Legal, all of the stock option admin, investor and Board relations, took over and managed facilities and office manager type stuff) so I didn’t protest. And I got to have a 9-10 hour day instead of a 14-16 hour day. Kinda nice. Plus, I didn’t want some weird perception of me. I already knew there was as I heard some rumors of employees saying I only married my husband because he was the CEO (umm…when I met him and for several years after I made more money than he did you schmucks. And we started the company together well after he met me. Jealous and insecure much?) I thought these guys are more trained in HR and should know better anyway, right? Uh-huh.

Company still grew but then 2001 came and the economy tanked and business deals tanked and then 9/11 and we did 2 big rounds of layoffs between summer and fall. Then we had to bootstrap and did a final round in which I got laid off too as my husband felt showing me preferential treatment would be bad. So he kept one of the others from HR to manage that stuff. Ok…

I started a consulting business and had several good clients and kinda liked it – my own schedule, worked from home most of the time or at the client homes. Got to run my errands during off commute hours, take the huskies to the beach all the time. Pretty chill. I wasn’t working a gazillion hours and being stressed all the time. I highly recommend it if you can do it…

Then husband said that the HR rep just didn’t show up for a couple days. I won’t go into too many details about her deal but she basically stole a small amount of money plus was having trouble at home, blah blah. So he asked if I could take on the HR work as a part-time contractor since we were pretty small once again. Sure. I added my old company job (and still part MY company stock-wise) to my consulting jobs.

Boy…the mess I found created by the old HR department. 401k annual reports not filed correctly or at all for years, COBRA paperwork not done correctly, personnel files were a mess, insurance bills not audited and being over paid or not even right at all with coverage, and on and on. WTH did these 5 highly-compensated people do in there all day??? So I fixed it. Plus took over a project to wind down a segment of our business when our Controller needed the help.

Then when our Controller blew a mental gasket and just didn’t show up one day…or 5 days later, I took over our accounts payables/receivables, corporate insurance and payroll until we found a new one. And kept the jobs of payroll, corporate insurance and paying all of the admin/HR bills since I just fixed all of our relationships with the companies.

And then we grew and husband asked if I could come back on full-time. So I did. Phased out my other consulting jobs and came back full time. And have been doing it since then. Paid less than the other HR people had been when I started back. Did get a bump up more to market a couple years ago but husband always worried about the “optics” of him giving me raises or stock option grants. I’m not complaining, I’m not working for slave wages or anything by any means, but I note that I am still paid less than that Director of HR we “needed” who apparently couldn’t manage his department. Wonder what he is doing now? I sure hope he or his team are not in charge of anyone’s HR department…

I don’t want credit or accolades. I don’t ask to be recognized or care about titles or look or ask for raises, bonuses, etc etc. I have a job to do, I do it. I get things done. And correctly. But in the same vein, what I also don’t want is to hear (still? again?) is that people think the only reason I have this job at all is because the CEO was my husband. Really awesome to see people still believe that. *awesome* Who the F are you to say or assume that?

Or to think you can do or parse out my job “easily”. You want to add my job to yours – be my f***ing guest. I’m not saying other people can’t do my job – there are plenty of good HR/Administrative/office people out there. But it’s not so easy to find them – because they probably have great jobs already.

All I have to say you jackasses is a big F.O.

~end rant

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100708/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_running_of_the_bulls

An American was also injured Wednesday in another event during the San Fermin party in which horned juvenile cows weighing about 400 pounds (180 kilograms) are released into a bullring to be taunted by young men.

This is in addition to the bull-running where all those bulls are slaughtered after the “fun”. I don’t actually care that the meat is served up in restaurants after. Not one iota.

Spain can go F itself. And all of the runners…them too. The Americans can be double-F’ed since it’s not their “tradition” or country anyway. I’m only sad they (the people) didn’t die from their wounds…now *that* would have been a good time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Wow. This kid is one of the bigger spoiled brats I’ve read about NOT coming out of Hollywood…

Let’s see…

Your grandparents paid for all 4 years of college plus boarding;

After graduating and not finding your “dream” job you lived at your parents house, not only room and board free, but they also pay for your cell phone and life insurance;

You now live with your brother where your parents cover your portion of the rent;

A job that you were offered started at $40K a year but you turned it down as a bad opportunity/not good enough for you.

Wah.

The American Dream is elusive for you because its achieved through a lot of hard work, sweat and perseverance. Not hoping the right dream job lands in your lap so you can leave your parent’s cushy nest eventually.

Loser.