"The Conference Board said Tuesday its Consumer Confidence Index fell almost 11 points to 46 in February, down from a revised 56.5 in January. Analysts were expecting only a slight decrease to 55. It was the lowest level since the index recorded a 40.8 reading in April 2009.
"The increasing pessimism, which erased three months of improvement, is a big blow to hopes that consumer spending will power an economic recovery. Economists watch the confidence numbers closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity."
So, can we give up on the idea of a trickle-down economy that's based (at best) on the have's selling a bunch of stupid shit to the have not's through a culture of mass-marketing, yet? Probably not, huh? K. I'll just keep on waiting for the Rapture then. And obviously make sure my pets are taken care of when it happens.
I have not been watching any of the Olympics, because they sound super boring and I value my time. However, I recently read something that makes me think they're not quite so boring as I thought...
"The citizens of the village are young, remarkably healthy, and the definition of physically attractive. In such an environment, flirting is as natural as breathing.
“'It’s eye candy all the time. Everybody’s checking everybody else out from moment they get there,” recalled Cammi Granato, captain of the powerful U.S. Ice Hockey Team that won gold in Nagano in 1998 and silver in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
"Inevitably, some athletes get beyond flirting. That’s why the Vancouver organizers have laid in a stock of 100,000 condoms, which works out to 14 for each of the 7,000 athletes, coaches, trainers and officials housed in the Games’ two villages. (Apparently, skiing, skating and sliding aren’t the only activities at which Olympians excel.)
"...In 2000, Sydney organizers thought that 70,000 would be enough. They were wrong and had to send out for 20,000 more. Beijing also ordered 100,000 condoms with an Olympic motto: Faster, higher, stronger."
Nice one, Beijing! The article also goes on to state that outsiders are strictly forbidden in the Olympic Village, so these athletes are actually just all fucking each other all of the time. The article ends with this tasty nug:
"...As with Las Vegas, what happens in the Village, stays in the village."
"So no one will go on the record when talking about certain female figure skaters — no home country was specified — who, as one former athlete put it, “really liked hockey players — and I use the plural. I think Sweden was a very grateful country for that.'”
The Bad:
VILLE PLATTE, La. —
A 52-year-old Louisiana woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of sale of a minor for trading two children to a couple in exchange for an exotic pet bird and $175.
Donna Louise Greenwell received 15 months of hard labor on each count on Monday, which she will serve concurrently.
The Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court's Office tells The Advocate newspaper that Greenwell will begin serving her sentence March 25.
The couple, Paul James Romero and Brandy Lynn Romero, each pleaded guilty to the same charges in October.
Greenwell was accused of selling the couple a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy in return for the cash and a cockatoo. Both children were in Greenwell's care after their biological parents had left them with her.
Look, I get it, times are tough all over. But a FUCKING COCKATOO?!?! I mean, if you think about it, that lady is eventually gonna have to put at least $175 back into the maintenance and wellbeing of that bird. So what this really boils down to is that this woman swapped two human children for a fucking cockatoo.
Also bad, the Florida State legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would accomplish these things:
- Makes induced abortions illegal and punishable by up to life in prison
- Allows doctors and hospital to refuse to provide abortion services.
- Continues judicial bypass that allows minors to seek a judge’s order instead of telling a parent or guardian.
- Prohibits abortions resulting from pregnancies involving rape or incest.
- Requires a second physician to sign-off on the procedure when a doctor believes an abortion was medically necessary to save the life of the mother.
- Requires women to receive information on adoption as an abortion alternative
One would be easily led to believe an outrageous assault on women's health and established federal law like this wouldn't have a shot in hell. However, lest we forget, this is Florida we're talking about here.
And The Ugly:
Someone's bitter!
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