How's This For Hypocrisy? Floating City Nears Maiden Voyage

From CNN Money. This ship is 5x the tonnage of the Titanic, and nearly 1/4 mile long, but is all okay--it's "green".

UPDATE: Cartoon.

Cruise ships generally get 8 gallons to the mile. The greenest way to cruise is staying home.

"Notorious for consuming massive amounts of fuel, dumping waste into the oceans and spewing carbon into the skies, cruise ships have abysmal environmental track records. Miami-based Royal Caribbean (RCL) has at least been talking about environmental stewardship since the early '90s, when it developed its so-called Save the Waves program, which basically amounted to a nice catch phrase: reduce, reuse, recycle."

I don't even want to know how much tickets cost for this monument to Al Gore's ego. Next, we'll see an Ed Begley version, where ships are covered in solar panels, passengers have to pedal for their morning toast, row for their lunch and dinner, and rain barrels will catch everybody's pee and use it to water the on-board produce gardens. Pretty soon, the vacation you were looking for will be out in the back yard, because you'll have to do more work "vacationing" than you did at home!

Maybe that's the object. It's also an expensive way to dissuade us from wanting to cruise. Joining the navy would be a whole lot cheaper--it worked for me!

Vacationing is getting AWAY from it all--not INTO it hip-deep. It's about temporary convenience and luxury, not immersion into Ecoland like you're going to be a permanent resident.

I can't wait to see how the greenie-weenies destroy the airline industry like they're doing to the cruise ship travel industry. "Green planes" for everyone!

I bet Capt. Sully wouldn't go NEAR one of them, unless it was to PURPOSELY drop it in the Hudson!

This Just In: Avoid Foreclosure--Rent Your Own Home

From CNN Money.

This may sound like a cure-all, but believe me, it isn't.

"Fannie Mae implements deed-for-lease program that allows troubled borrowers who don't qualify for loan modifications to stay in their homes."

And when the market comes back, and it WILL come back, who gets the equity? Not only that, what's to prevent the government from selling your house right out from under you--to say, Goldman-Sachs or Citibank, making THEM your new landlord?

Also, what's to prevent them from kicking you out (or relocating you) in favor of a more fiscally-responsible renter or a Section 8 tenant? Or worse--what if they install one of these "smart meters" and get control of your electricity, and your thermostat, essentially forcing you to live like a Third Worlder in "your own" home?

This is one of the myriad ways government is looking to cash in on YOUR efforts. Your future potential home equity, combined with other schemes, will help pay for future government spending Since they can no longer borrow from China, and can no longer borrow enough from other countries, they gotta get it from SOMEWHERE. They know they can't tax it out of us...that would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg (of votes).

UPDATE: After further surfing, I found the reason for this program.

A New Sign of Wealth?

I've noticed that my neighbor across the street, who is retired and working part-time at a nursery (he's the Rose Guy on the block, and his yard shows it), doesn't leave his porch light on overnight.

I also caught a glimpse of another neighbor across the street grabbing a strip of old, dirty Berber carpet out of my trash can. This woman was very old and presumably retired as well.

I'm tearing out old nasty, filthy Berber carpet to expose original hardwood floors in excellent condition, and leaving both my porch light and carport light on all night (both have CFL bulbs, soon to go LED). Am I the new sign of wealth in this area? One wonders.

There also aren't many kids on this street--at least not around me. I'm surrounded by retirees. All the wisdom I can ask for is within feet of me, I'm sure.

This Just In: Junior's First Paycheck--$500 At Birth?

From MSN Money.

"The ASPIRE Act would give each child born in the United States a $500 savings account. Low-income children would receive additional funding, and all participants could add to their accounts over time."

This is a backdoor program to pay people to have babies, just like they do in Europe and Russia. Our administration sees this as the only way to save Social Security and prop up an ailing economy in the future, because the outlook is so bleak that people won't want to have kids...and couldn't afford it anyway.

In Russia, abortions outnumber live births. In one of the Nordic countries, the mother gets paid to have kids, gets generous maternity leave (sometimes up to a year PAID), and is guaranteed her job back when she DOES return to work.

This Just In: Get Ready to Pay More For Health Care

From CNN Money.

"...the new stark reality is that the coverage you are enjoying right now is probably going away. There's a good chance it will not be an option by next year, or at least shortly thereafter."

The face of health insurance may change forever, doing away with things like co-pays, certain insurance options, and in-network discounts.

In my mind, FSAs and HSAs would do away with a lot of the things they're talking about doing away with anyway...but it's OUR money, and we can't be trusted to spend it wisely!

This Just In: Phosphorus Levels May Indicate Coronary Heart Disease Risk

From HealthDay news.

Let's see...first, it was cholesterol levels, then it was folate levels, and now it's phosphorus levels. Cholesterol and phosphorus have one thing in common: the source, which is meat. Any kidney patient can tell you about having to reduce phosphorus levels to stay alive, and this means eating chicken/turkey skins for meat protein (I once had a cat with chronic renal failure, or CRF).

Try to reason with a cat that his former beloved high-protein diet is no longer good for him.

The only meat-related item low in phosphorus other than that is tripe, which we cannot digest, and my cat hated. Dogs apparently love it, though.

Is this a subtle way of telling us that vegetarianism is the way to go to prevent heart disease-related problems? Dr. Dean Ornish tried to tell us years ago.

I don't blame meat as a whole. More accurately, I blame the way our meat is raised in these modern times. I presume free-range, grass-fed meat is lower in phosphorus, but I may be wrong.

This Just In: Details on Health Care Bills in House, Senate

From Yahoo News.

"Here are details on the three bills. The Senate bill has not yet been made public, so some specifics are unknown."

Too much to list--go to the article. Here's what all of them have in common: "DRUGS: Grants 12 years of market protection to high-tech drugs used to combat cancer, Parkinson's and other deadly diseases."

Ahhh, the hand of Big Pharma--they used to have only 10 years of market protection!