Saturday, December 31, 2011

Bill Bucy's Resolutions -- 2012



I will refuse to accept an Academy Award nomination for best actor or actress.

I will stop tipping airline pilots for really smooth landings.

I will refuse to style my hair like Justin Bieber’s even though I can.

I will share my 2012 lottery winnings with my wife because I sort of like her, not just because the law says I have to.

I will give my wife all of my 2012 lottery winnings if she says I can get a Fighting Ducks tattoo.*

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* Selection of the dermal artist and the location of the tattoo will be the sole choice of this blogger. Wife will pay all costs of acquiring the tattoo. Marriage must remain intact after tattoo is completed.


Boweled Over By Activia

Until now, I found the Jamie Lee Curtis Activia Yogurt commercials rather amusing. But in the latest she urges users to keep a video journal of how Activia helped them so I am kind of freaked out about what's next. 


And eager to find out.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christopher Hitchens and Xmas

Slate
An entirely appropriate time of the year to mourn perhaps the best essayist ever.

Hitchens was no weak-kneed stylist who punked and scorned simply to be noticed. Reviled, hated, never dismissed, the man wrote what he believed.

A few more genius assholes like Hitchens chronicling the world and we might get some things straightened out.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Newt Gingrich Lies To God and Me

Washington Post
Newt Gingrich has on multiple occasions sworn oaths before God to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.

That doesn't stop him from taking the decidedly unconstitutional stand that federal judges should be removed from office for rendering decisions out of step with popular opinion and forced to justify their decisions to Congress. He also favors abolishing specific courts whose opinions he doesn't like. 

I figure if Newt would lie to God over and over again he wouldn't hesitate to lie to me.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

U.S. Gets Shaky About the Death Penalty

The Los Angeles Times tells me judges and juries sentenced just 78 people to death so far this year, a 30 percent decline from 2010.  My home state of California increased San Quentin's death row population by just 10 people, a drop of about two-thirds from the previous year.

Nationwide, 43 people were executed this year, well down from the 52 people the government killed last year.

Some say the decline is due to the fact ever-practical Americans are souring on the high cost of revenge. I prefer to believe it is because we are reasonably fair-minded people honestly concerned about the likelihood that innocent people are sometimes executed.

More Jobs, More Poverty

Two items snatched from today's news:

The number of people who filed unemployment claims last week dropped to the lowest level since May 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, the U.S. Census said 48 percent of all Americans either live below the poverty line or fall into the low income category. That is 148 million people living in the wealthiest nation on earth.

Seems like we have a ways to go before we can accurately use the words economy and recovery in the same context. 

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Good News/Bad News on Jobs

U.S. unemployment declined to 8.6 percent last month, the lowest level in more than two years, according to the Labor Department. That's worth a glass of champagne for those of us (everyone) exhausted by negative economic news.

However, some economists warn we shouldn't get carried away with ourselves.

For instance, Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, told Bloomberg that a major factor in the decline was a drop in workforce participation to 64 percent. Calculating in that factor, unemployment is really at about 11 percent, he said. In addition, underemployment is about 15.6 percent.

But, while the improvement seems soft, the trend is up and the experts say that reduces the chance of another plunge into recession.

That alone might be worth a second glass of champagne.