Thursday, September 22, 2011

Odds and Ends for a Thursday

A few random things to help us coast down to Friday ...

According to this article in the Washington Post, the Justice Department has frivolously spent huge amounts of money, including on $16 (apiece!) muffins and $8.24 per cup coffee for conference snacks. Who do they think they are ... job creators or something? Amazingly enough, Congressional Republicans and Democrats agreed that this was an outrage, although when this was pointed out, several of them reversed their positions on principle.

Andrea reposted this wonderful picture on Facebook and on her blog yesterday:

Clever, sad, and oh-so-true.

Nessa wanted me to share this one with you ...

Nessa, though, skips all that other stuff and goes right to "Jumps all over you." No sense in wasting time.

Do you understand what "quantitative easing" means? I always thought it meant "resting a lot," but apparently it has something to do with the intersection between the complex mathematical concepts of money supply and imaginary numbers. Here is one explanation. Here's the part that clues you in to the fact that it's all a gussied-up shell game:

"A central bank implements quantitative easing by purchasing financial assets from banks and other private sector businesses with new electronically created money."

"...new electronically created money." I thought that had something to do with counterfeiting, but I guess I was wrong. Here's a grain of salt to take it with ...

And that's all for today. Maybe I can get invited to a meeting where they serve $16 muffins and $8 coffee.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

9 comments:

eViL pOp TaRt said...

Wow! I'll stick with beignets and café au lait. Government lives high on the piggie!

Amanda said...

I like how that picture reminds us not to neglect reading.

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I absolutely love the book suicide photo! I may have to steal this one Bill.

KathyA said...

I'd like to see what a $16 muffin looks like.

Gotta love your Nessa!

"Quantitative Easing"? Have no freakin' clue.

And Jersey Shore -- ugh -- you do know that Snooky is NOT Italian. (I know I've said this before). Unfortunately, Berlusconi is. :)

Raquel's World said...

I also would like to attend the meeting with the high end muffins and coffee!

Anonymous said...

$16 muffin!? the other day i hemmed and hawed over a $8 package of 4.

Mike said...

"...new electronically created money."

I guess that's what I do with my scanner and printer. I didn't know it had a fancy name.

Duckbutt said...

I've endured three-hour Meetings from Hell, and even upscale coffee and pastries won't compensate for them. I'd rather a prostate exam than one of those!

The Mistress of the Dark said...

I'm pretty sure a book commits suicide whenever you watch Mtv! or reality tv :)