Oil up more than $10 a barrel in one Day!!!

Yea, in a sick way I kind of enjoying it. I own shares of UGA the U.S. Gasoline Fund Exchange Traded Fund. It is basically a basket of Gasoline Futures Contracts, so when the price of Gas goes up, so does this Fund. Hey, I just wanted in on a piece of the action. It's a still a capitalist kind of society until next January when most likely things will change drastically. Not because of some grassroots mandate, but by circumstance. This is only the begining. 30 years of an economic boom fed by an easy money orgy is not going to be corrected by 6 months of "flat" growth and bounce back like some bad cold recession like in 2001. This is going to be 1930's time and as prices for everyday things explode like Wilhelm Germany things are going to get ugly.

From my perspective things in this country are going to go left for a very long time. Everyone is going to be affected, heck even Ed McMahon is going to lose his home and he is supposed to be that "Great Depression Generation" that kept saving every penny they made, kept a cellar filled with canned goods & stole all the condiments from the restaurants they went to.

Then again it is what we signed up for when the Alpha Males on Wall St came up with these "innovative" products to make "Joe 6 Pack" a mini Donald Trump. No one complained about inflation when Real Estate Prices shot up to the stratosphere & people had to sign their lives away. What perfect timing was it when the changed the bankruptcy laws right before the top of the slippery slop started to turn? Everyone wanted to keep their profits private when their house doubled or tripled in a few years. Now they want to nationalize the losses when they owe the bank more money now that their mortgage is under water?

It makes me wonder if America is really the ultimate capitalist society that it claims to be? Money like life is a Zero Sum game, the losers pay off the winners, the Credits balance the Debits. Right now it seems that no one wants to pay off what they owe. It may be true that we never want to go too far to the left, since Americans are always for free enterprise and such. But with powerful market forces at work I leave you with this one thought.

What if in the ultimate free market Capitalist way a Hedge Fund cornered the market on some life saving Pharmaceutical Drugs keeping them out of reach of the public; With the intention of holding them on pure speculation that they price would go up? It would be a free market with those with access to capital using their leverage to gain more capital, thus making a profit...

These are interesting times, it will be interesting to remember when before the return to strict regulation people used to drive up the cost of shelter, heat, food, ect.

For the most part I really was a bore this weekend. The only thing I really ventured out in doing was going to check out this attempt at an outdoor festival in Niagara Falls Ontario called Springlicious
It really wasn't all that rocking when I stopped by on Saturday afternoon, although the weather had something to do with it.


Although I have to say one good thing, it was a good feeling to sample food without being attacked by strollers as is so common at any outdoor event in Western New York.

What really surprised me is how much the Niagara Falls Ontario downtown has deteriorated. Queen St is starting to look like any burned out downtown in western New York. For the most part the only thing down there is City Hall and Orchid formerly the Daily Planet.

We then just decided to hit a Real Tim Horton's and do something else. What came next was a stop at the Penn Centre in St. Catherine's. It's just lately I have been feeling less and less Canadian for some reason. It could be the absence of seeing another U.S. plate when I was driving a bit deeper in the Niagara Region. The dollar & customs going back in the U.S. has the lion's share of why Americans just don't visit anymore. The problem with that is being Canadian and feeling part of the country is a core part of my being. Lately I just feel it slipping away on many levels. SO what did I do? I bought a Roots hoodie and I made sure that it featured the lettering Canada on it somewhere. The next thing I did was I stopped at the beer store to buy a 12 pack of Carling Black Label. Canadian beer prices are not cool as it was $20 for a 12 pack of beer that is on par with PBR.

Anyway when ever I have free time and resources I plan on messing around in Canada this summer. It really gets into gear with the R.E.M. concert next weekend, of which I currently have an extra ticket is anyone is interested.

Originally a comment, but I decided to post it due to size.

I wasn't too thrilled about the square last night. To be honest I was there for a grand total of 35 minutes and left. The masses really got to me to be honest. The smoke was as if you were indoors and I just couldn't stand all the people walking aimlessly with a beer in one hand and a cell phone in another. Oh, and those "hot topic" kids on Main st really pissed me off.

All I can say is I'm glad that there really isn't anyone I' too crazy about on this year's schedule. To be honest if there was someone was passionate about, I'd flip. Trying to focus on an artist is tough in the "world's biggest outdoor happy hour" environment. At this point I am happy to pay to see a concert to be around liked minded people, not kids trying to distract themselves or people just there taking up space for something to do. You could throw Lance Diamond up there on stage and still get the 10,000 people crowd. It's all about drinking, free entertainment, and trying to get a phone number, all while trying to to look good in doing so. I can go to Chippewa any weekend for that, if I really wanted it.

The biggest surprise of the night was the amount of people squeezed into Tim Horton's! Not even in Canada do you get so many people getting their coffee & donuts at one time. Yea, it was cold so coffee was in order I suppose.

In closing I just didn't get a good vibe at all from the first Tats.

At this point I wish I could attend more Tuesday's in the Gorge at Artpark. You wont' have to deal with the punk kids or homeless looking people. Shit, I must be getting old & snobby :-/

Lately my viewing habbits have gravitated towards the Showtime Network. Surprisingly the biggest draw for me has not been weeds or some crazy movie, but documentaries. This one Maxed Out (SORRY GOOGLE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. LINK WAS -4840432044369494646) sucked me in totally this weekend. This is why the Republicans are going to wander the desert for the next 30 years. In the middle of this doc they show how the unwinding of the bankruptcy laws in this country effectively brought back the Debtors prisons a la Charles Dickens. Two of the main characters of this show Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey are interesting twist to the whole thing. For the most part I can't stand Suze, but to me Dave Ramsey has been the shining light of the Fox Business Channel. The economic climate has finally caught up to his message, "It's cool to be Frugal."

So on one end we have the average people succuming to slavery by the banks and on the other we have the Uber Capitalists. They're kind of the people that (e:hodown) sees on a daily basis in NYC.
Yes, it's long but it does show the pinnacle of what everyone is striving for in the New York Metro Area. Those are the people everyone wants to be or pretends to me at least in their mind. It's kind of ironic that the financial "products" that some of that crowd came up is the fuel that indirectly is helping us burn $4 gas in our cars. To me it's kind of shocking to see the people that can burn though cash like it's nothing be Neanderthals. Since it always that the higher class of people the more civilized or gentrified, but in reality the ultra wealthy may have always been this way, we just never saw it on TMZ.

In the end we need to tilt ourselves to the left, a la FDR style.
We are going to have to turn to civic sacrifice to turn things around for everyone as the decession deepens. That means higher taxes on the corporate/hedge fund crowd & all sorts of other middle class building initiatives.

Yea, I almost got into one last night in allentown and of all places it was F'n Gabriel's Gate Ironically we went there since my Ex saw some old co-worker across the street @ Frizzy's and didn't want to get into it with her.

We get to the bar, of which all the stools were taken at the time. We order a couple of beers and then wait for a couple to cash out their bar bill as they were heading to a table. There is this old guy literally stuffing his face with chicken wings at the end of the bar, but I think nothing of it.Then for the next 30 minutes we watch the Celtics lost to the Cavs. The weird guy goes away to the bathroom and comes back 20 minutes later to the same spot at the end of the bar. Then all heck breaks loose. He then marches to my stool 5 down and starts getting into my face saying, "You moved my beer!! That is a rotten thing to do!!!" Now to be honest I though he was saying that I stole his beer, but nothing I said to the contary did anything but make him more angry. At one point I thought we were going to go at it, but he backed away. From what my ex tells me he then proceeded to stand behind me chugging his beer. The next thing is that a guy that was watching this unfold at a table behind us comes up to me and tells me , "that guy is getting ready to BUST THAT BEER BOTTLE OVER YOUR HEAD!!!" I turn around and the guy is bright red!!!

My thought is, "I am going to get into a fight @ Gabriel's Gate with a 55 Year old Gay Guy!!!" I put down my half finished Heinie & immediately leave. As a precautionary measure I ready myself on the right side of the door nest to the iron gate. The decision is made, if this Fucker comes across the line of the gate, I'm taking him down UFC Style on the sidewalk. Well he did follow me outside, but he just looked at me on the front of the steps, sneered at me and then walked away towards Coulter Bay.

My Ex was laughing her ass off that of all Fucking places I was going to get into a fight with an AARP member at Gabriel's Gate!!! Of all the shady ass places I've been to drink I actually can't believe that I had to experience this at this of all places! It's a fucked up world where you feel safer with 21 year old fratboys drinking on Chippewa. I guess if you're dealing with people that may be packing you don't pull that kind of drama when you're tripping balls.

Anyway to close the night we ended up checking the newest incarnation of the Jupiter Room now "The Bend." All I can say is I really like what they have done to the place. I actually felt comfortable in there without the vibe of throwing down ;-)