Todays stock market sucks!

I figured out why the stock market these days is such a risky place to invest! There are waaaaayyy too many armchair investors nurturing a few lonely long shot stocks. They hope that their ship will come in soon.... oh to wish it would. Problem is that with SO many online investors who don't have the guts to wait out a market correction, they all start selling which causes a crash, much like what happened when automated trading hit the market in the late 1980's (with disatrous results-causing the markets to completely shut down!). Now rather than computers, we have far more skittish investors watching their retirements go flushing down the stock market drain. Didn't a previous president say things about privatizing social security by having everone invest in the stock market? Hmmmm, well nowadays everyone IS invested in the stock market by way of 401K, IRA, and Stock accounts like E-trade and Ameritrade. If only all these armchair investors would use some restraint, the market wouldn't swing so wildly. 300 points in a day is almost the norm now! (that's roughly 2.3% change, still less than the great crashes of yesteryear).

Is PayPal really your "Pal"

Back on November first I received a lovely email from PayPal stating my account had been "limited". Limited meaning I can't do anything with it really.
I spent over two hours on the phone trying to resolve an issue that was never really an issue in the first place! Since the phone call isn't free, I'm paying the phone company for usage time for a toll call to fix a problem that shouldn't have been!
I had logged onto PayPal via a different computer than I normally use, which apparently caused an erroneous "third party use" alarm which then limited my account. Ok, I try to follow the online steps to clear the limitation, particularly entering the bank routing information. That kept failing, which then requred me to hunt through the PayPal website to find the contact number. Being on hold for over 45 minutes I finally reach an operator. In the process of "resolving" the account routing information, the battery on my phone quits, which of course hangs up the call. Great...Calling back again, waiting on hold...again...I reach an operator who is able to reset the bank routing information, but the account remains limited. I follow the steps online including the phone verification, which also failed, causing me to wait more than a full calendar week for the snail mail code to arrive.
How then does PayPal expect merchants to be faithful to a system that penalises them if they need to acces their account from a different terminal/location. If I travel and use a remote terminal (ie;internet cafe), will my account be limited again and I suffer through two weeks of NOT being able to transact business via PayPal? I can understand the need for vigilance, but I think the current policy toward limiting accounts is too sensitive when accountholders use remote terminals.
On the whole it took two full weeks for that simple problem to be resolved. Fortunately for me I only had $50 in the account at the time. A lesson learned from this is not to let the PayPal balance grow too high lest they hold my money ransom again.

12 Million less Jobs that Americans will do

So, if the Repulicrats, er i mean Demicans, get their way with instant amnesty for those alleged 12 million illegals residing in the great US of A, There may be a perilous situation where there are no more illegals to do those jobs Americans won't do. Hmmm. Think about it. If in one instant Congress decides that say, as of 12:01 am Jan 1, 2009 all people illegal or otherwise are now American Citizens, then in that same instant there are no longer any jobs that Americans won't do. Since currently the buzz word is that we need illegal immigrants to do the jobs that regular Americans won't do, then after the illegals are naturalised there become a vacuum in the status quo. Uh oh! Better let some more illegal border crossing happen and quick! Nature and the American way abhor a vacuum.

A test of embedding my youtube private video

this is just a test for now and the real text will be added later.




hopefully this works...
Note if using dial up connection it will take about 10 minutes to load. Best is to click play button to start the download, then shortly after click the pause button at the lower left. The video will keep downloading in the background while you can go about visiting other web pages in a new window/tab. once it is downloaded then click play again and the video will play normally.

Made in America?

Is anything made in America anymore? It seems that even American names have sold out to manufacturing in China. China, land of great pollution and poison products being exported to USA. Seems that lately even our produce is being imported from China. Take a look at the country of origin for much of the produce at your local supermarket, I guarantee a surprise in store as you find formerly locally grown items are now imported items from (da da daaa) China.

If we don't get off our lazy American asses, we will be a third world country begging for scraps from the polluted wastelands of modern day China. Keep in mind that the Chinese government has NO food and drug guidelines. They care little about what chemicals are in their exports, so long as lazy Americans are willing to forgo quality (product safety) over price(lowest cost regardless).

I bring this up in my search for an American made push mower. Seems companies like Great States, American Mower and such while still American owned have sent all their production overseas to......China! More profit for the owners, less GNP for America! What an economy we live in!

Start looking at the labels of where things are made and make the conscious choice to actually buy American even if the price is higher. Why? If enough people do this the prices will drop because it will make business sense to produce locally again rather than halfway around the planet.