Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I’m reading that the government is thinking about a freeze on interest rates for those who are facing a big increase of their variable-rate mortgages. The plan is to force banking institutions into moving these people to other mortgages.

Millions of low-rate mortgages were issued and are about to kick in with the higher rates spurring fears of a drove of defaults. So the Feds and bankers are looking for a program to help these people out.

How about a literacy program? Continue Reading…

Among the glut of disgusting, terrible, greed-inspired, cash-in-on-Christmas commercials that have reached an all time low, there is the occasional highlight. This one tickled my funnybone.

[dewplayer:http://gritzmacher.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/Robert-Lund-Elves-Gone-Wild-08-Pinecones-Halle-Berry.mp3]

Why do local TV stations treat their viewers like morons?

It’s the middle of November. The first snows came and melted a couple weeks ago. (Not here in the Miami of the North – Lockport, but down south of Buffalo, where it belongs)

Every 10 minutes, the TV starts beeping and a crawler comes on telling me what anyone with half a brain or a Farmer’s Almanac already knows: it’s going to snow. Continue Reading…

I had thought about adding my two cents to the debate over NY Governor Elliot Spitzer’s plan to license illegal immigrants, but restrained myself until now. Now that the plan has been dropped (I almost said over, but I have a feeling it’s far from over) I’ll make some observations.

• I have felt all along that the real underlying issue wasn’t drivers licenses for non-documented persons, but whether a drivers license is proof of citizenship, i.e. for border crossings. Spitzer, in his own crazy-like-a-fox way, was making a point to the US government that if a drivers license is no longer enough proof to re-enter the country from Canada, then why require people to prove their citizenship to get one?

Continue Reading…