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Friday, August 15, 2003

I know this is so Martha Stewartish of me, but I love making my own croutons for salads. The croutons you buy in the box in the store are so gross compared to the croutons I make myself.

It's so easy too. Use good italian or french bread, like baguettes or pugliese. Cut the bread up into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, and for seasoning, use McCormick Salt Free Garlic and Herb Seasoning. Bake in the oven till desired crunchiness at around 350 degree or so, and store for use with salads.

YUMMY!!!
In between watching the 49ers beat the Raiders in a pre-season football game, I watched the news coverage on the East Coast blackout.

I was so amazed by how much I still like Aaron Brown. He's just got the most amazing voice. He's so calm and steady. Like I said before, he's the Mister Rogers of broadcast news and that's his main appeal.

The conspiracy radio programs were having a fun time speculating on whether the blackout was caused by an electromagnetic pulse weapon, and whether it really was a terrorist attack or a secret US test of a new weapon gone haywire.

And I agree with other conspiracy boards I visit, the Shrubmeister looked very tired and worried in his taped response from San Diego. The man has really aged since since he took office.

And what was up with the Prime Minister of France saying it was caused by a lightning strike in upstate New York, when later reports said he was totally wrong?

A friend called and we both joked how we were freaking out in the first five minutes when we heard the news, thinking it was a terrorist attack. Before 9/11 we would never have dad that thought about terrorism.

I told her it's karma for the rest of the country laughing at California when he had our blackouts. Cheney the head Orcmeister said it was Cali's fault. We wouldn't be having a governor recall if it wasn't for the criminals like Ken Lay and Enron who messed with California's energy market.

The energy experts have been predicting blackouts would be happening on the east coast, just like they were in California, and of course, like the early reports of terrorists wanting to take down the World Trade Center again, nobody believed them.

Talk about conspiracy theories. Did you see the electrical grid maps for the US? Why is the Texas region on its own grid, and all the other states are connected on one of two other grids?

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Huge power outage on the east coast. What is going on? It sounds like it's moving to the Midwest as well.

This is scary!

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

I heard an interesting interview last night with Don McAlvany, who has his own newsletter about the financial markets. He's definitely a doom and gloomer kind of guy, and here's some interesting factoids he let loose, which of course the major news media outlets are not even talking about.

There were 1.6 million personal and corporate bankrupticies last year, the largest number in US history.

With the collapse of the and internet and tech stock bubble in 2000, $8 trillion dollars of wealth evaporated, although $2 trillion of that loss has come back since then.

Stocks right now are trading at 32 1/2 times earning, which means in a bear market they're still overvalued. They should be trading at 5-8 times earnings.

10-12 million Americans are currently unemployed, and the Fed is understating the unemployment rate saying it is 6.5%, when it should be closer to 9.5%.

Boeing by the end of the year will lay of 40,000 people.

The US is losing its manufacturing base, and these jobs will not be replaced in the US.

There's a real estate bubble with over $5 trillion invested in real estate mortgages. The mortgage interest rate has gone up from 5% to 6.5% in 1.5 months, which isn't a good sign.

The long term bond market collapsed, and saw its lowest prices worldwide since 1927 in the last 90 days, and lost $6 trillion in value.

Currently, there is $200 trillion invested in the derivatives market, which investors use as a hedge against the stock market, rising interest rates, etc. The collapse of the long term bond markets is sending shocks waves through this sector.

The Feds are flooding the markets with printed money, hoping to ignite another stock market bubble, which could lead to rising interest rates and hyper inflation.

If interest rates rise, watch for the real estate market and derivatives markets to both collapse, along with the stock market.