Thoughts from Helpful Hank

Blog Addict

2009-03-05T12:29:00.003-05:00

So I've become a blog addict....

I thought my life was interesting... I've been reading about:

a man cheating on his wife in So. Cal
a wife cheating on her husband in the south.
a man living "green" saving the world
a single mom of 3 living in rural Vermont
a rich girl, living off family money and bored in NC.
a writer from Wisconson
A woman looking for her first F/F relationship in Washington
Swingers
Politicians
Businessmen
a guy debating coming out of the closet

All so very fascinating. Boy does my life seem boring, I think I'll live through them for a while.

Unintended Consequences

2009-02-27T12:08:00.004-05:00

I admit it, I voted for Barack Obama. However, I'm a life long proud Republican. I hate it now that people won't admit they're a Republican. I AM!!! I have often split with them on social issues, but have always felt that their ideology was the smarter of the two parties. I think I'm a business Republican, and a social moderate. I think the Democrats are the party of easy answers. War - END IT.... Rich - Tax them.... Poor - Give them more benefits..... Health care - Nationalize it.....

What about the unintended consequences?

Even the current economic crisis I believe was created by the Democrats and their need to provide for everyone. Make everyones lives a little easier..... that's not governments role.

Sure every night on TV I get news stories about the failed economic policies of the last eight years.... I agree they were terrible policies, we over spent. However, President Bill Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act which had prevented the coupling of investment banking and lending. To be exact, on November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One of the effects of the repeal is it allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate. Economists have criticized the action.
Of course economists criticized the way in which the Bush administration manufactured money by allowing anybody and everybody the opportunity to buy or refinance homes. Economist Robert Kuttner has criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 sub prime mortgage financial crisis.

Also, The Community Reinvestment Act or CRA of 1977, is a federal law designed to encourage commercial banks to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Community activists had lobbied the Congress to pass the Act in order to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods. Some economists, politicians and other commentators have charged that the CRA contributed in part to the current crisis by encouraging banks to make unsafe loans.

Economist Stan Liebowitz wrote in the New York Post that a strengthening of the CRA in the 1990s encouraged a loosening of lending standards throughout the banking industry. He also charges the Federal Reserve with ignoring the negative impact of the CRA. In a commentary for CNN, Congressman Ron Paul, who serves on the United States House Committee on Financial Services, charged the CRA with "forcing banks to lend to people who normally would be rejected as bad credit risks." In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Austrian school economist Russell Roberts wrote that the CRA subsidized low-income housing by pressuring banks to serve poor borrowers and poor regions of the country. Jeffrey A. Miron, a senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University, in an opinion piece for CNN, calls for “getting rid” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as policies like the Community Reinvestment Act that “pressure banks into sub prime lending.”

Basically all this "preditory lending" was a Unintended Consequence of these acts. How many times did we hear Bill Clinton talk about home ownership... and how we had to allow everyone access to the American Dream through home ownership. Well they all got their homes, they all got their mortgages, and now, we are all paying for it.

Sure you can blame greed and speculators if you'd like. However, access to easy money, with no doc loans, no fees, no apprasials, all implemented so redlined districts could have access to the easy money, so the CRA standards were met, and the working poor could have access to home ownership, even though most couldn't afford it.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions..... and unintended consequences......

Rick Santelli

2009-02-20T13:30:00.002-05:00

I don't know if many of you knew who Rick Santelli was prior to yesterday, basically he's a trader at the CME and is on CNBC everyday. I always listen to him, I find him direct, and too the point.... even when I don't agree with his assessment on trading or the economy, I like him. Now the world knows who he is. If you don't check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQQfzXQ6UjA

Strange People - freak at the quicky mart

2009-02-19T12:37:00.004-05:00

So I'm at the local quicky mart the other day. As I'm walking in, I see this peacock looking person smoking a but outside the store. I had thrown $20 worth of gas into my V8 road hog, which I believe caused the increase in global temps all by itself. Anyway, as I take a peak at her, she turns in my direction and I get the full look at her, she's in her early 20's. She's not looking at me, so I get to take it all in..............................

WOW what a freak!

Pink and Orange Mohawk hair style.
Tatoo on the neck green ink for that classy look
Tattoo on fingers just like OZZY
Pierced Eyebrow
Pierced between nostrils with bull hoop.
funky make up
wrinkled clothing

So I think, what the fuck could have happened to her, that she looks like this on purpose? I scroll through all the obvious; drunk dad, molested as a child, meth head mom, thrown out of her house, no daddy when she was a little girl, one of ten kids and never got any attention......

So I grab a soda, and I walk up to the counter, she's now moved inside and is working at this fine establishment. I think how screwed up could she be, she's got a job. Then i think maybe its her first day, and she did all this to herself after she got the job.

Then I thought; that's right she did this to herself. If she were a child and her mother made her cut her hair like this, get a tattoo on her fingers and neck, and create this look and then go into public.... we'd call it child abuse. She did this to herself. I'm walking up to pay for my gas and soda, and all these questions go through my head to ask her.... but the basic premise of the questions are WHY???

So she rings me up, and I'm looking right at her. I'm handing her the money, and she's making change. At this point, I don't know what I'm going to say until it comes out... sometimes its like there is this huge disconnect between my brain and my mouth.

I'm looking right at her, right in the eyes, I'm not judging, just looking for something, anything. Thats when I see it.... beautiful eyes, wow she has really beautiful eyes. Crystal blue, really round, bright whites of her eyes and big blue eyes. I smile, never taking my eyes off her. Take my change and I say " Have a nice day"

She says "Thanks buddy, you too" ha ha... she called me buddy.....

I walk out of the store, hop into my gas hog, and I think..................

I think about how my brain works, how I assume so many things about people just based on how they look. I know that if I saw beauty in her, it must exists in everyone.... heck maybe even me. So now when I see one of those strange freaky people, I'm going to look for the beauty within them, I'm going to spend more time looking for the beauty in everything.

Thank you to the Freak working at the quicky mart! You've really made a difference, you made me look for the beauty in all things.

Maybe I shouldn't call her a freak....

Adventures in Dreamland

2009-02-18T11:54:00.002-05:00

What do my dreams mean?

I had a dream last night. Now I'm sure I dream every night, but I don't usually remember them. Wow, what a dream; you know one of THOSE dreams....

No not the simple dream where you're falling and you wake up before you hit the ground. Not where I'm in school and I forgot my homework, or that there was a test, or that I forgot I didn't drop the class I thought I'd dropped, or forgot I'd signed up for a class I'd never attended, so I was getting a zero for a grade. I didn't show up to school naked, or I wasn't told I wasn't graduating.

All of those dreams allegedly mean that your life is feeling out of control. Yeah, no shit who's life isn't out of control these days. It was a sexual dream... a few more minutes and it could have been a wet dream. Should a 40ish guy be on the verge of a wet dream? It was awesome, the details are fuzzy, but basically, I met a women, red hair, mysterious. We were talking, she seemed to be very interested in our conversation. We were in a group of people, I don't know why, it didn't seem to be work related, but it wasn't a bar either. She kept bumping into me, at first I didn't notice, but then it seemed deliberate, breasts in my back, butt in my groin area. Touching me too long, looking deeply into my eyes when she talked. Next thing I know she's rubbing me through my pants, and then she takes me away. We are in a strange place, her place. She is naked, we are kissing, our hands are all over each others bodies. I'm pleasing her. It is very important to men to make sure we can please women. The night goes on, she has orgasm after orgasm, we have oral, and sex, it is unbeliveable. I wake up just as I'm getting ready to come in my dream.... or I assume in my sleep as well..... I get up out of bed, she's still sleeping. I jump in the shower and finish my dream.... ahhhh... what my life has become.

I always assumed when I was young and horney every second of everyday, that by my age I wouldn't really be interested in sex anymore, or at least not as much. Now, don't get me wrong, when I was 18 and in my early 20's I was always ready, there was never a good excuse to give up a good sexual experience. I could get laid twice a day, and still have the energy to masturbate.

I still love sex, and funny, its still never enough. However for different reasons. When I was younger and I was seeing someone, there was usually sexual energy from that person. If I wasn't seeing someone there was the hunt. That was a nice part of the game.... it was like having foreplay with someone who didn't know it. Once in a while, when you meet someone you're both having foreplay, and that's when it really works... That doesn't happen very often, where the sexual energy and chemistry are in sync...... when it does, lock the doors and take the phone off the hook, turn off the cell phones.... It could be a while.

Now that I'm older, I've settled down, I have a partner. Sex is really bad. I think if I could have passionate sex a couple times per week. I'd be good. Is this too much to ask? You wouldn't think so. However, I can't seem to get regular good sex. Great sex is out of the question. Quicky's are even pretty rare. Why is that? This is really becoming a problem in our relationship. If she wanted it I'd do it, I don't understand... I've communicated this to her, she doesn't get it. I'm really getting ready to give up.

I can't wait to get back to dreamland tonight, I really hope I have the dream again, this time I'm going to take it slower, tease her, driver her crazy. She will want me forever, visit me every night.

I think my dream means that I'm pathetic. Maybe, I should just get myself a fleshlight.

http://www.fleshlight.com/original-fleshlights/

I think I'll go with the original lady.

Ramblings....... I wonder where this will go?

2009-02-12T10:53:00.007-05:00

Ok, this is my first "BLOG", welcome to the 21st Century Hank!
I think we are living in really unique times. I'm sure every generation thinks this, but look at the change that has existed in my 30ish number of years on the planet.

I've gone from vinyl records to 1000's of digital songs on my I-Pod
from Keds to Crocs
from 3 TV channels to 300
from a rotary wall phone with a 35 foot cord to a Crackberry that won't stop beeping giving me full time updated info on everything in my life.

People used to have to wait for things, defer gratification. Playboy came one a month, now there is porn on demand. Drive through dinner, download a song. Direct deposit, ATM, everything right now!!! What a great time to be alive!!!

Although sometimes I think its all too much, too much info, too much now. I can hear the same news story from 16 different people all coming up with the same conclusion just so they can compete with time. How about some thought, some insight, a new perspective.

Why do I have to watch the networks all talk about the idiot who had 8 kids on top of her other 6.... Why is this news worthy??? This is child abuse, they should take the kids away from her!!! SHE IS CRAZY!!! Take all of them, give them to couples who can't reproduce, or homosexual couples who haven't been able to adopt. Heck, give them to Madonna or Brad Pit, they seem to want a heard of there own, this way they'd be raised by a well paid nanny. If the Nanny is messing up, they can fire him/her and get a new one. Hey all you network news executives out there reading my blog, stop putting her on TV. Every time she comes on I change the channel.

Why is it every network CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, FOX News, CNBC, PBS, talks about how bad the economy is. How about reporting some news, stop stating the obvious. You want to solve the economic crisis.!? Make people feel good about the country, do something good. The financial crisis started from excess lending, brought on by home prices always rising. No doc loans, cheap negative financing, no credit checks, no income verification. All this went on legally, congress was happy to allow people a shot at the American dream. Banks gladly bought up the CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligation) when it was known that there was no current collateral, because real estate was always a great investment, and provide consistent returns over time. They leveraged (borrowed money) to purchase these so that they could get larger returns. I wish I was in congress, I'd let them fail... it would go like this:

The Honorable Congressman Helpful Hank: Q: So Mr. bank executive you took $1,000,000 of your companies money, and borrowed $39,000,000 more, and purchased these CDO's, and then you did it 100 times over. Correct?

Bank executive A: Yes.

THCHH: Q: At the same time was your business involved in underwriting mortgages?

BE A: Yes.

THCHH:Q: Did you notice that the lending standards were no longer being followed?

BE A: ahhh.. yes.

THCHH Q: So you knew that companies were lending money to unqualified buyers, you borrowed money to purchase CDO's where you knew that the collateral was fictional, and now you want a bail out?

BE A: Well, yes.... we would.

THCCH: Hey Fuck you Mr. Bank Executive go bankrupt!

BE A: ahhhh pardon me?

THCHH: You heard me....

The government should let them go bankrupt, purchase their CDO's at their bankruptcy auction for 10 cents on the dollar, or the lowest possible market price. Only the government would be there to purchase because this has effected all financial institutions. They should look inside each CDO, and find out what property exists within them. Hire and pay Goldman Sach's to break it up and repackage it. Take all the good performing loans and sell them individually for 50 - 75 cents on the dollar. If you have a loan on a home that you took out in 1997 and you owed $200K on a $250K home, since then you've paid off $50K and the home is now worth $300K, so you have a 50% Debt to equity ratio on the home, and someone living in it and paying the bills.... this is a pretty safe investment. At the same time the government would need to create a good bank, and continue to loan money to businesses which need capital. There will be plenty of smart bankers looking for work, hire the best to manage this in a private / public arena. Once the worst has past, do an IPO on this new investment bank and pay the government back for the loans.

Back to the homes the government now owns through the CDO's:

All other homes, put into the public housing portfolio, move single mom's / dad's out of the hell holes that live in, give priority to the women and men who got stiffed from child support from dead beat dads or moms... give them a nice home. Provide them opportunity provide them with the option of purchasing their home in the next 3 years for the 10 cents on the dollar the government purchased it for. Give conditions, kids attend school and do the work. Find employment, or go to school, be able to get a conventional mortgage with a sales price of 20 cents on the dollar, discounted for a conventional mortgage at the price the property was purchased at in 3 years. Use the government money to pay the current costs instead of paying slum lords. Hire a business man instead of a government bureaucrat to over see the properties and the project. Knock down the slum state housing, this would create great urban renewal projects, which when built would help stimulate the economy.

In 3 to 5 years the everyday housing crisis for most single moms would be over, they'd be on their way to obtain the American dream. Very strict requirements would be needed to qualify for the program. No drugs, no arrests, be a contributor, volunteer work, parenting classes, workshops on budgets, career counseling, etc... those who want to work hard at becoming a contributor gets the prize at the end, a nice home with a lot of equity, and opportunity for their children. An opportunity to change the generational problem of poverty. Did you ever notice that people often get into the "family business" Al Gore's father was a senator. Farmers fathers were usually farmers. If someone lives in poverty, it is usually because their parents did, its what they know, its what they do. yeah, yeah, yeah, don't bite my head off over that, but anyone who knows anyone living on public assistance or in public housing ask them what their parents did / do....

Well, I guess I see where this went. I'll be writing again soon. I hope if anyone reads this they find if helpful, entertaining, or at least amusing.