RANT: Media Bias – Cost the FDIC?

Sunday, January 31, 2010

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regulators-shut-banks-in-apf-1868747589.html?x=0&.v=2

Regulators shut down banks in 5 states
Regulators shutter banks in Calif., Fla., Ga., Minn., Wash., totaling 15 bank failures in 2010
By Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer , On Friday January 29, 2010, 10:48 pm EST

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators shut down a big bank in California on Friday, along with two banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Minnesota and Washington. That brought to 15 the number of bank failures so far in 2010 atop the 140 shuttered last year in the punishing economic climate.

The failure of Los Angeles-based First Regional Bank, with nearly $2.2 billion in assets and $1.9 billion in deposits, is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $825.5 million.

*** end quote ***

And, where, pray tell, does the FDIC get “its” money?

Yes, the taxpayer.

Either directly or indirectly.

Neither the gooferment, nor any corporation, have ANY money that doesn’t originate from a real person.

Some of the FDIC money is extracted from the banks that it “insures”, but that is extracted by the surviving banks from its customers which are, presumably, taxpayers.

Now, with the supposed “insurance” fund broke, it gets “its” money from the Treasury which means we borrow it from China!

Argh!

Hopefully, the AP writer will learn that 825.5 comes from the poor taxpayer.

And, we wonder why we are in a depression?

Economic illiteracy!

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NOTRECOMMENDED: O’Reilly and Beck Bold and Fresh; not live!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

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OK, maybe I’m a sucker. I went to the movies last night. Yes, it was a (poor quality) movie. Not the live remote performance that I was expecting. I felt suckered. The previous night, I went to the Senior Showcase, EB Vo Tech, where aspiring high school seniors displayed their talent. One of their presentations was a better quality than the “professional” one I watched last night.

Now, I understand that weather in Norfolk prevented the live performance. But I felt cheated. It was supposed to be “live”!

The film was obviously edited. I paid for the full performance and I think some of the good stuff was left on the cutting room floor. And, if it was edited, why is there a twenty minute “intermission”. Sorry, that could have been cut. Maybe it was for the old folks to tap a kidney. But, I suspect it was to allow the theater to push some over-priced “refreshments”.

On to the content, I was again disappointed:

* Beck spent to much time mocking Nancy Pelosi’s physical characteristics. At first it was funny, but after a while it got boring.

* O’Reilly was “abbreviated”. He got in some great points about was NOT in Obama’s SOTU, but it seemed like, in his head, the TV timing bell went off and he’d truncate his thought.

The audience was obnoxious. It addition to being mostly old and lilly white. The guy next to us was a fidgeter; guy behind us dropped a big tub of popcorn; and the old lady behind us kept commenting to her party about what the guys were saying. Argh! A chorus of cellphone conversations would have been less distracting.

(18 seats per row, 50 rows, pretty much sold out, 900, time 25$, 225 * 100, 22500$ per theater, times 200 theaters, !!!4,500,0 00!!!, over a million a piece for two hours of work? Hmmm!)

As far as the content was concerned, I had the following observations:

* Beck is NOT a libertarian. No self-respecting libertarian would have a demonstration planned for 8/8/10 in from of the LINCOLN memorial.

* O’Reilly is an interesting amalgam of professed small government but pro-war guy. Interesting, but dangerous. He did correctly identify that OBH44 ignored the Iran threat in the SOTU and has potentially by ignoring them made the world a more dangerous place. If israel has to take Iran on, we are in a world of hurt.

* O’Reilly pointed out that in the SOTU address OBH44 avoided the whole “War” topic. (And, neither mentioned OBH44’s failure to praise the troops. I can’t imagine any President missing that point.)

* Beck makes a good case that the Progressives are the problem.

* O’Reilly was funny in his description of how the folks will wake up and right the ship. Hope he’s right. I’m not so sure.

* Beck portrayed OBH44 as evil; O’Reilly characterized him as an inexperienced unprepared Chicago corrupt politician. (O’Reilly was especially on point with his: comparison of Chicago’s South Side with Haiti; Reverend Wright’s 2M$ mansion in a all-white suburb, AND the KSM terror trial in NYC. He reminded me of Judge Judy when she says “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true”, when O’Reilly says that the “folks” can feel when the politician isn’t telling the truth. (Like when their lips move!)

Sorry, but I can’t recommend this.

I shoulda went to see Avatar; it’d been cheaper.

Yeah I know, violating my own dictum, “Shouldas, wouldas, and couldas” will kill you.

It was: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Desi and Lucy, and probably more physically accurate Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy.

But not as timeless, or not as funny.

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http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/the_beckoreilly_bold_fresh_tou.html

“15 minute intermission” live in Tampa

Why was ours 20 minutes?

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INTERESTING: Celtic Woman. a strange allure?

Sunday, January 31, 2010

http://www.irishcentral.com/IrishAmerica/Celtic-Woman-the-women-behind-the-Irish-musical-phenomenon-82109502.html

Celtic Woman: The women behind the Irish musical phenomenon
By Aliah O’Neill, Irish America Magazine
Published Thursday, January 21, 2010, 11:14 PM
Updated Friday, January 22, 2010, 7:29 AM

*** begin quote ***

The answer as to why American audiences have responded so enthusiastically to Celtic Woman has not always been clear. When I asked Lynn Hilary, who joined the group in 2007, why she thought American audiences continue to be so responsive to Celtic Woman, she admitted that at first, she wasn’t sure. “I didn’t really understand it for a long time, that they would react in such a way,” she said. “They’d be crying and on their feet every night applauding us. But American people really identify with Ireland, and a lot of Americans have Irish in their ancestry, so Celtic Woman allows them to re-identify with their roots and gives them a feeling of belonging.”

*** end quote ***

Have to admit, I’ve seen the ads, watch some of the PBS, and there is some sort of strange allure? Just like Riverdance, which having seen live twice, it has that “grab” characteristic. Maybe it’s like Irish hip hop? Or with Celtic Women, it’s full size real women in movement — as opposed to the hollywood “heroin chic” that makes women look like refugees from a Nazi Death Camp? But 40$ for a DVD of 20 songs. Not going to happen.

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