Oh, Toad

Well, so sorry for being gone for over a week. Great things have been happening at Toad, where we have a new whine on the whine list. Other big Toad news: we're running our first-ever ad campaign! On an all-Beatles web-cast radio station! Really!

Well, why not?

Also, we have new Toad items at the Cafe Press Gift Shoppe, including the popular "angel" T-shirt design ("Every time you visit Toad a la Mode, an angel gets a spanking").

Second verse, same as the first

CIA, FBI Warn Panel on Top Threats to U.S.
Iraqi Insurgents an Emerging Threat, Goss Says
By David Morgan
Reuters
Wednesday, February 16, 2005; 1:10 PM

The United States faces a broad array of global threats, ranging from North Korean and Iranian missiles to a Sept. 11-scale attack by Islamist militants inspired by Osama bin Laden and hardened by their experience in Iraq, top U.S. intelligence officials warned Wednesday.

Do tell. I wonder what we should do about these threats? Too bad we don't have a missile defense system to protect us.

I am allergic

to Lamb's Quarter, pecan trees, and grasses.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Again, new stuff on Toad. We're kind of getting out of our pregnancy/post-natal slump. Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy New Year!

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, we have new material up on Toad.

God I love Lloyd Doggett!

He's not my congressman anymore, thanks to Tom DeLay, but he sure speaks for me:

From Ways & Means Committee Transcript, February 9, 2005

Doggett: Yes, thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you Secretary.
Mr. Secretary the figures that I have here suggest that over the next
decade Social Security will actually generate a surplus of about
$2.6 trillion, does that sound about right?

Snow: Yes, the system is

D: And do I understand that the budget that you're so proud of and
the Administration's proud of here this morning, proposes to
borrow every penny of that $2.6 trillion from the Social Security
Trust Fund and use it for non-Social Security purposes?

S: Well, the, the, obligations in Social Security, Congressman, as
I've said over and over, will be honored every penny

D: Yes sir, you're going to honor them, but you're going to borrow
from Social Security and use it for non-Social Security purposes,
correct? $2.6 trillion worth of borrowing?

S: That's right, and they'll be backed by the IOU's and obligations
of the United States government.

Heflin folds

Texas Dems pick up one last seat.

Heflin's is the last of three challenges stemming from that election to be dropped. Jack Stick withdrew his challenge against Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, and Eric Opiela dropped his contest against Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, D-Alice, last month.

Gee, all the challenges were from Republicans, weren't they?

Rumor is that the state GOP put pressure on Heflin to give up (and notice that a Republican--Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas--led the investigation and made the initial call) because they didn't want to enrage Ho's constituency. This puts a Vietnamese immigrant in the Lege--kind of a new thing in Texas, I believe.

Privatize your homeowner's insurance!

I'm so smitten with the administration's "cure" for Social Security (oops--sorry, now it's not a cure; it's just "more fair") that I've decided to replace all my other insurance coverage with the same system. So, starting immediately, I'll stop making those $200-a-month payments to my insurance company for homeowner's protection. Instead, I'll sink that money into the booming stock market. Then, if my house ever burns to the ground, or floods, or gets wiped out by a tornado or hurricane, I won't have to just take whatever the insurance company hands me. I mean, with all the problems insurance companies are always having, who's to say they'd even be solvent when I needed them?

No, instead of using the insurance company's $70,000 check to replace my house, I'll be able instead to fund my own replacement home, with what I'm sure will be a much larger chunk of money that my $2400 annual investments will have grown to. Let's see, if I earn an average of 5% per year, I'd have, oh, not quite $2500 in my first year! Minus broker's fees, of course.

How great is that? I'll tell you what else we should do, we should immediately reform all state-mandated auto insurance programs, and allow drivers to put the money they now pay for auto insurance into their own, personal accounts. Let them invest the money the way they want. And then when one of them rear-ends my elderly mother-in-law and she spends a month in traction, they should have plenty of cash on hand to pay her medical bills. Right?

Ownership Society, here I come!