This first clip is of a dude taking a big fall. He's fine. In fact, he did one of the most hilarious interviews I have ever seen with Larry King the week after this. I don't know if the best part of this video is his wipe out (only because I know he's OK) or the stoner announcers reactions to it...
Did you know...
Between 2003 and 2007, Exxon paid $64.7 billion in U.S. taxes, exceeding its after-tax U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion. Obama wants to take these windfall taxes and give them to us as a stimulus package. I could use the money, but no thanks. I'll stick to the old free market system thanks. No need to resort to socialism to curry my vote.
Maybe they have in mind profit margins as a percentage of sales. Yet by that standard Exxon’s profits don’t seem so large. Exxon’s profit margin stood at 10% for 2007, which is hardly out of line with the oil and gas industry average of 8.3%, or the 8.9% for U.S. manufacturing (excluding the sputtering auto makers).
If that’s what constitutes windfall profits, most of corporate America would qualify. Take aerospace or machinery — both 8.2% in 2007. Chemicals had an average margin of 12.7%. Computers: 13.7%. Electronics and appliances: 14.5%. Pharmaceuticals (18.4%) and beverages and tobacco (19.1%) round out the Census Bureau’s industry rankings. The latter two double the returns of Big Oil, though of course government has already became a tacit shareholder in Big Tobacco through the various legal settlements that guarantee a revenue stream for years to come.
Did you know...today is the recognized day of invention of champagne. Invented by none other than Dom Perignon in 1693. As a bonus, only beverages that actually come from the champagne region of France can be called champagne. All others are just sparkling wines. Leave it to the French to take the joy out of booze. Snobs.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died today. Russian author who made the world aware of the gulags, the soviet labor camp system. Reading Solzhenitsyn makes it difficult to take seriously the people in this culture who insist that Dissent has been squelched. Brother, you have no idea.
KID UPDATE!!
Madison is anxiously awaiting the start of kindergarten. As are Kelly and I. We will go back-to-school shopping for the first time this year. I can't wait to get the backpack. We need a ruler and an eraser and a compass, which I never used and it always poked me, pencils, lined paper...oh what fun.
Ian is now jumping in the pool by himself. He just decided to do it and he did. He is also "swimming" by himself a little. He'll go back and forth between Kelly and I but at least we can let go of him now and he moves right along. His words are becoming clearer as well. Not only can we understand but others are beginning to too...to...too. He sure is testing his boundaries. Seems like all we say is "NO, IAN" to him. He still wants to give us hugs and kisses so I guess it's not all bad.
Reagan has one tooth protruding. She will from here on out be referred to as Chompy. She is also scooting on her belly. She gets on all fours and kind of leans forward and her legs come out from under her and she moves a little. She should be crawling any time now.
All is well at this Pfaffenberger household. I hope anyone who reads this can say the same about their brood.
As a parting gift here is a rather dramatic chipmunk.
No comments:
Post a Comment