On G.E. stock breaking the $10 mark

Insight from my hubby, the stock trader.
"If you had asked people six months ago which was most likely to occur first, General Electric dipping below $10 a share or the rapture, most would have guessed the rapture."

At least we have more time to repent.

Puff Piece

The Michael-Phelps-caught-smoking-pot-story is a tempest in a bong. By now, most Americans understand that pot isn't any worse for you than booze. Personally, I'd rather have a stoned driver coming towards me at 40 miles an hour than a drunk one going twice as fast, hurtling across the median line. So what are we to make of this good old boy sheriff down in South Carolina, who had his men burst into a frat house, guns drawn, in search of an incriminating bong that might have Michael Phelps' DNA on it? It's a frat house, for heaven's sake. The surprising thing is that they DIDN'T find a bong. Michael Phelps had the discipline, character and athleticism to win 14 gold medals. I'd say he's earned the right to unwind and smoke a little dope.

It's time this country got over its hypocrisy and legalized pot. After all, it's a lot less dangerous than the grotesque binge drinking that kills a dozen or so college students each year. Most intriguingly, legalization could be a huge boost to our flailing economy by creating thousands of employment opportunities, including:

• Agricultural jobs for farmers and farm workers

• Retail jobs for dispensaries and eventually cannabis cafes, the smoker's equivalent of a bar

• Trucking and distribution jobs

• Opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to sell pre-rolled or packaged pot, or pre-fab brownies and other treats

• Refining, processing and packaging jobs for factory workers

• Research positions for scientists who would finally be allowed to investigate THC's pharmaceutical properties

• Marketing, advertising and design jobs to market the pot to adults, just as hard liquor is marketed today

Then, there are the fringe benefits:

• More time for the cops to go after bad guys

• More room in the jails for actual hardened criminals, who we could put away for a longer time

• Fewer lives ruined by incarceration for a victimless "crime"

• Less congestion in the courts from trials for pot-related offenses

• Less business for murderous Mexican drug cartels

• Less hypocrisy in society in general

• Less fodder for sleeze ball "journalists" who spend their times trying to embarrass people like Michael Phelps

Live long enough and you'll prosper. Maybe. If we ever get out of this hole.

Those long, elfin ears! Those diagonal brows! There is no doubt in my mind: Timothy Geithner is a Vulcan.

Eight Is Too Many.

"...I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous..." Excerpt from the Hippocratic Oath

Stand back. I'm gonna spew. I'm gonna be venomous and judgemental and not nice. Because Nadya Suleyman, the psycho woman who just had the octuplets, makes me sick.

For starters, there's the pathological Angelina Jolie fixation. Mom's had a nose job, cheek implants and lip plumping to make her look like the fourth runner-up in an Angie look-alike contest. She's trying so hard, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a crossed-out Billy Bob tatoo on her ass. And despite the lack of a Brad clone to mate with, Nadya's apparently determined to out-baby Brangelina. Except rather than pick a poor nation to adopt from, she's just given birth to her own third world country.

No one can accuse the Jolie-Pitts of not having the resources to raise their children. This bimbo, on the other hand, is divorced, with no apparent source of income and 6 other kids at home. Suleyman claims she'll be able to support everyody after she finishes "her classes". Until then, she'll be giving them "love". Which better be caloric, 'cause she sure ain't breast-feeding eight kids. And what classes, pray tell? Because flower-arranging isn't gonna keep 8 babies in huggies and onesies. As for love, does this cow have any idea what an ordeal the NICU is for a preemie? The needles, the blindfolds, the lack of physical contact and nurturing? The estimated tab of $400,000 per child by the time they're discharged? Does she realize premature babies are likely to have digestive issues that could require surgery? Or severe vision problems? Or under-developed lungs susceptible to respiratory distress, asthma and life-threatening infections? She's looking at six or eight thousand dollars per kid just for RSV shots, which preemies need to get through the cold and flu season - not to mention the cost of treating the inevitable developmental delays and possibly life-long learning disabilities. But who cares when "all you ever wanted to be was a mom"? You just have to share that love because it's all about you. If it wasn't about you, you wouldn't be getting interviewed on TV: you'd be in the NICU with your babies.

Nadya Suleyman intentionally conceived eight children with ongoing medical problems that will cause them pain and suffering and cost society millions. She has demonstrated that she is unintelligent, irresponsible and selfish - all terrific reasons to replicate one's DNA. Just what our overpopulated world needs - more stupid, self absorbed people, consuming and polluting. Most disturbing of all, this case almost has me agreeing with the pope. In vitro, in this instance, really IS unethical. The so-called doctor who agreed to implant the embryos could have refused on the grounds that it was medically dangerous. Instead, he took the money and created eight children with compromised futures to accommodate a crazy woman's identity issues. The doctor should lose his license. As for Pseudo-Angie, I hope her uterus falls out.