Something on your mind this morning? Type it out. It’s therapeutic.
28 thoughts on “Open Thread Monday”
Its been a mild and peaceful weekend because I stayed home and didn’t get out on the roads where the drivers have mostly lost their minds. Driving too fast. Not turning on their turn signals at all or when the arrive at the turn instead of before. Or talking on cell phones, eating, getting dressed, putting on make up, shaving, drinking some kind of liquid. Pulling out in front of you only to slow down because they are going to turn at the next corner in a few hundred yards, (couldn’t wait two more seconds for you to pass). Speeding around you only to turn in front of you to take the next off ramp. Reading maps, books or fiddling with the radio. Driving with their knees because their hands are too busy doing other things. Sitting so far back in their seats and so low that they can’t possibly see over the front end of the car. Center post obscures any vision of them so you don’t know if they see you coming or not. Heavy trucks flying down roads such as Farmington Rd., far exceeding the speed limit. Hikers and bikers that don’t pay any attention to street signals or traffic and consider themselves above these laws. People that just have to get through the light even though it is turning red as they pass. Drivers who race to the red light and slam on their brakes and then jack rabbit start when it turns green. Those that are stopped at the light and just have to keep inching forward in anticipation of the light turning green. Where the heck are all these people going in such a hurry? When we all get to the red light I am right there beside them and I didn’t waste the gas racing or the brakes trying to stop. Sometimes its just nice to stay home for the weekend and just let the world go by. And don’t tell me that people are too busy to do that. I doubt anyone has any more projects going than I do. Have a good peaceful week.
Just looked out my office window and spotted the Peoria flag flying high. It had never even occured to me that there is a big nosed red faced indian on it. With all of the problems that U of I had with Chief Iliniwek, has anyone ever thought maybe we should avoid the inevitable and change it now, like Bradley did with there mascot? And SD, thanks for staying off the road and not slowing me down….ha,ha.
Art Garfunkel, after having the price reduced to $25, could only sell 800 tickets. Too bad, because he really does put on a good show.
Think the Civic Center took a hit on that one?
We really like using the presidential gold coins instead of paper ones. However, when we go to the bank they always seem to be out. They MAY get some the following Tuesday, but I’m there on Thursday.
Once in a while I read in the paper where the writer is lamenting that dollar coins just don’t seem to catch on. Hmmm. Could it be because they’re NOT EVER AVAILABLE! Thanks. Just had to vent.
I’m just wondering why so few people are commenting about our wonderful state govt. They can’t seem to get anything done except raise their own salaries. Blago forces the legislature to meet, while he continues to refuse to live in the governor’s mansion, preferring to jet back and forth from Chicago at great expense to the taxpayer. We need to limit the days these clowns are in session and go back to a true part-time legislature, and tell the gov to live in Springfield or pay for his own commuting, like us normal people do.
I like using dollar coins too and am equally frustrated by the lack of support our bank has for them (CEFCU).
Seems the only way I can reliably get dollar coins is to go buy stamps at the Post Office.
The government seriously needs to do away with the dollar bill. Yeah people will bitch but it will pass. It did in Europe when they eliminated one and five denominations.
Mahkno,
CEFCU is a credit union – not a bank.
A Savings & Loan is not a bank.
A Savings Bank is a Savings & Loan in hiding and therefore not a bank either.
Only a bank is a bank. Have you tried to get them at a bank?
^oo^~
One Feral Kat
You sound like my father. A banker at a bank who to this day still refers to them as “those savings and loan pukes” Growing up we were told we couldn’t be used car salesmen or work at a S&L 🙂
One Feral Kat: I did go to a bank, not a credit union, and they didn’t have them and didn’t know when they would get them. The only way we’ve been able to get them is by buying stamps in a machine and getting dollar coins as change.
BeanCounter,
Thanks – that’s funny! Something you probably know but the general public does not is that credit unions and S & L s do not pay income taxes due to their very nature. OTOH banks are subject to corporate taxes. What does that mean? Essentially a bank makes one dollar and gets to keep 50 cents. A CU or a S&L makes a dollar and keeps it and as long as reserves are adequate and they pay their depositors at the rates previously agreed upon (i.e. CD rates, savings accounts) then they have an excess. Years ago when your Father was in banking or at least in his formative years he may have seen or known of the salaries, bonuses and blatant perks for CU and S&L honchos. The IRS finally caught on but the idea of spending the spoils of a good year made many rich people. So did bankers have a reason to hate those “pukes” as your Father called them – probably so – if nothing else out of jealously. ^oo^~
OFK — However, credit unions have restrictions on membership — not just anyone can join a credit union. CEFCU, for instance, can only accept as members people who live within certain Illinois counties or who are employed by certain businesses. Banks, OTOH, can accept anyone as a customer from anywhere in the country; no restrictions. So there are trade-offs. Banks are free to convert to a credit union charter any time they want. That they don’t shows they find it more profitable to be banks.
From PJStar.com about an incident at Michelle Obama’s luncheon:
“Razia Ahmed, 64, of 2015 W. Cimarron Drive was led away in handcuffs from the downtown convention center about 12:45 p.m. when Peoria police arrested her on a charge of criminal trespass.
Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, was protesting the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at the U.S. District Courthouse earlier.”
Sounds like a serious violation of the peace. All hell was surely about to break loose if they didnt’ restrain this woman!
Credit Unions used to have legitmate member restrictions, i.e. you must work for CAT to be a memeber. I don’t think “serving the employees of more than 550 companies in addition to Caterpillar, plus individuals who live or work in a 14-county service area in Central Illinois” is really restrictive.
Any industry that suffers systemic failure and requires a multi-billion dollar government bailout (some source say trillions) doesn’t really get any sympathy from my father or me.
Did you hear about the guy that bought a toaster and got a free S&L? (That’s so 80’s)
BeanCounter — I’ll grant you that it’s less restrictive than it used to be, but compared to banks, it is still very restrictive. And credit unions have never had a bailout — that was the S&L scandal. Here’s an interesting article from CUNA:
It would take more than three centuries for the amount of the annual credit union tax exemption to reach the level taxpayers forked over to deal with the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to the Credit Union National Association’s (CUNA’s) analysis of a recent government report on the banking industry.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released to the public in May, updated estimates of the costs of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC) bailout, in 2006 dollars. The $438 billion price tag represents $166 billion of total resolution costs borne by taxpayers, and $272 billion in total interest costs borne by taxpayers.
CUNA analysis showed it would take 313 years at the Treasury’s 2007 estimate of $1.4 billion for the annual credit union tax exemption amount to equal the total of the savings and loan bailout.
“Three centuries is a long time to wait to get paid,” said CUNA President/ CEO Dan Mica. “The GAO study shows just how absurd is the banker argument that the credit union tax exemption must be erased to help pay government bills.
“Further, as banks have posted five straight years of record profits, the GAO study clearly indicates: The existence of credit unions has no impact on the ability of banks to make money – lots and lots of it.”
The GAO study found that, measured by return on assets, banks are generally more profitable than are thrifts, and both are more profitable than credit unions. In 2006, GAO reported, banks posted 1.27% ROA, thrifts 0.96% and credit unions 0.81 %. (News Now May 31)
So, I’m not shedding any big crocodile tears for banks. They’re doing very well — even the small banks, as the Journal Star reports today.
I am not saying that they need to pay income taxes to somehow payback anything, that wasn’t my point. I am saying credit unions and s&Ls used to be different and distinct from banks so of course they operated under a different set of rules. Over time CUs have been granted more authority to enter differnt markets and their restrictions have been lessened. They no longer serve different markets, so it is odd (in my view unfair) that they still play by different rules. I was preschooler when this all went down, so I really can’t over come my parental conditioning. They are all pukes. You keep patronizing CEFCU and avoiding walmart and I’ll keep shopping at walmart and dealing with a real bank and karmically we will balance each other out 🙂
Ha. Well, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I worked at CEFCU for 10 years, so I’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated. 🙂
That said, I actually have nothing against banks. I just think they’re being disingenuous when they complain about credit unions. It would be like WalMart complaining about all the competition they’re getting from a local food co-op.
When it comes to getting farking dollar coins, it really doesn’t matter whether it is a farking Bank, S&L, or a Credit Union. They all make change.
In other news… any of you notice how quiet it is this Summer? There are almost no annual cicadas. Indeed instead of cicadas, I have a mess of these cicada killing wasps that are just HUGE. We have watched them pluck cicadas out of the air. Pretty impressive.
My son is having a fit over them. His imagination has gone wild that he is going to get bit by one of these beasts.
“Over time CUs have been granted more authority to enter differnt markets and their restrictions have been lessened. They no longer serve different markets, so it is odd (in my view unfair) that they still play by different rules.”
Also true, incidentally, of investment companies like Fidelity and Schwab. They’ve been allowed more and more entry into traditional banking products they were once restricted from offering, and they operate under an entirely separate set of rules.
Banks, predictably, whine to the heavens that this takes away their customers etc etc etc while continuing to lobby for the ability to offer investment products banks have traditionally been restricted from offering. 🙂
I was an intern at Bank of America when that trend (investment places w/ banking products) was getting traction and hoooooo boy did everybody hate investment places.
(I adored working at BofA. It was awesome. I would never, ever, ever bank there unless I had enough money to bank in the private bank. We have to keep fleeing them when they buy our credit cards and banks ((I still have a childhood account at LaSalle … until the next time I get to Chicago to close it out due to BofA.)) Worst. Retail Banking. Ever.)
If you do get stung by a cicada killer you will never forget it. That being said it is rare that a solitary wasp will attack a person so he should not worry about those big nasty looking guys. Now the smaller yellow jackets that live underground in large nests are a different story, they will attack for almost no reason at all.
Raoul: The cicada killer wasp also has underground large nests, my neighbor and I are in eradication mode. Just have he wasp be carrying the cicada in flight whizz past the side of your face at eye level and without hestitation enter its underground home — spooky.
Mahnko thank you for your informative link.
These wasps…. How would one find their little underground lairs? We’ve been outside a lot trying to eradicate some large wasps that are invasive and aggressive species and we just can’t seem to get rid of them.
Ordinarily it wouldn’t be necessary to get rid of all of them (their population is declining) but I am highly allergic to the buggers and am also highly opposed to emergency room visits.
Also, I agree with The Mouse. If employees at a company behaved the way the state legislators are, they’d be fired. Their inability to agree on anything but their own raises is enough to make me lose faith in democracy all together.
The wasp lairs looks like very large anthills. In fact my son thought they were anthills at first. If you look at the wikipedia picture you will see the digging out… looks like ant work.
I hear the best way to beat the cicada killers is to eradicate the weedy areas of your lawn – those areas not thick with tight-rooted grass. I also hear they attack the cicada, lay eggs in the body, and bury it in the dirt, thus their affinity for loose soil.
They love the weedy areas of our yard! So far, however, they don’t seem to have any interest in humans – or dogs.
The cicada killers in our yards made a large tunnel just in the bare dirt and in the wild flower bed too under the Yarrow so I guess they go wherever the female wants to tunnel.
The cicada killers like disturbed soil for their tunnels. They do not really nest, they will kill a cicada put it in a tunnel and lay an egg on it, the larva will feed on the cicada as it grows and emerge as an adult in the spring. They lead a solitary life but for mating.
Its been a mild and peaceful weekend because I stayed home and didn’t get out on the roads where the drivers have mostly lost their minds. Driving too fast. Not turning on their turn signals at all or when the arrive at the turn instead of before. Or talking on cell phones, eating, getting dressed, putting on make up, shaving, drinking some kind of liquid. Pulling out in front of you only to slow down because they are going to turn at the next corner in a few hundred yards, (couldn’t wait two more seconds for you to pass). Speeding around you only to turn in front of you to take the next off ramp. Reading maps, books or fiddling with the radio. Driving with their knees because their hands are too busy doing other things. Sitting so far back in their seats and so low that they can’t possibly see over the front end of the car. Center post obscures any vision of them so you don’t know if they see you coming or not. Heavy trucks flying down roads such as Farmington Rd., far exceeding the speed limit. Hikers and bikers that don’t pay any attention to street signals or traffic and consider themselves above these laws. People that just have to get through the light even though it is turning red as they pass. Drivers who race to the red light and slam on their brakes and then jack rabbit start when it turns green. Those that are stopped at the light and just have to keep inching forward in anticipation of the light turning green. Where the heck are all these people going in such a hurry? When we all get to the red light I am right there beside them and I didn’t waste the gas racing or the brakes trying to stop. Sometimes its just nice to stay home for the weekend and just let the world go by. And don’t tell me that people are too busy to do that. I doubt anyone has any more projects going than I do. Have a good peaceful week.
Just looked out my office window and spotted the Peoria flag flying high. It had never even occured to me that there is a big nosed red faced indian on it. With all of the problems that U of I had with Chief Iliniwek, has anyone ever thought maybe we should avoid the inevitable and change it now, like Bradley did with there mascot? And SD, thanks for staying off the road and not slowing me down….ha,ha.
Art Garfunkel, after having the price reduced to $25, could only sell 800 tickets. Too bad, because he really does put on a good show.
Think the Civic Center took a hit on that one?
We really like using the presidential gold coins instead of paper ones. However, when we go to the bank they always seem to be out. They MAY get some the following Tuesday, but I’m there on Thursday.
Once in a while I read in the paper where the writer is lamenting that dollar coins just don’t seem to catch on. Hmmm. Could it be because they’re NOT EVER AVAILABLE! Thanks. Just had to vent.
I’m just wondering why so few people are commenting about our wonderful state govt. They can’t seem to get anything done except raise their own salaries. Blago forces the legislature to meet, while he continues to refuse to live in the governor’s mansion, preferring to jet back and forth from Chicago at great expense to the taxpayer. We need to limit the days these clowns are in session and go back to a true part-time legislature, and tell the gov to live in Springfield or pay for his own commuting, like us normal people do.
I like using dollar coins too and am equally frustrated by the lack of support our bank has for them (CEFCU).
Seems the only way I can reliably get dollar coins is to go buy stamps at the Post Office.
The government seriously needs to do away with the dollar bill. Yeah people will bitch but it will pass. It did in Europe when they eliminated one and five denominations.
Mahkno,
CEFCU is a credit union – not a bank.
A Savings & Loan is not a bank.
A Savings Bank is a Savings & Loan in hiding and therefore not a bank either.
Only a bank is a bank. Have you tried to get them at a bank?
^oo^~
One Feral Kat
You sound like my father. A banker at a bank who to this day still refers to them as “those savings and loan pukes” Growing up we were told we couldn’t be used car salesmen or work at a S&L 🙂
One Feral Kat: I did go to a bank, not a credit union, and they didn’t have them and didn’t know when they would get them. The only way we’ve been able to get them is by buying stamps in a machine and getting dollar coins as change.
BeanCounter,
Thanks – that’s funny! Something you probably know but the general public does not is that credit unions and S & L s do not pay income taxes due to their very nature. OTOH banks are subject to corporate taxes. What does that mean? Essentially a bank makes one dollar and gets to keep 50 cents. A CU or a S&L makes a dollar and keeps it and as long as reserves are adequate and they pay their depositors at the rates previously agreed upon (i.e. CD rates, savings accounts) then they have an excess. Years ago when your Father was in banking or at least in his formative years he may have seen or known of the salaries, bonuses and blatant perks for CU and S&L honchos. The IRS finally caught on but the idea of spending the spoils of a good year made many rich people. So did bankers have a reason to hate those “pukes” as your Father called them – probably so – if nothing else out of jealously. ^oo^~
OFK — However, credit unions have restrictions on membership — not just anyone can join a credit union. CEFCU, for instance, can only accept as members people who live within certain Illinois counties or who are employed by certain businesses. Banks, OTOH, can accept anyone as a customer from anywhere in the country; no restrictions. So there are trade-offs. Banks are free to convert to a credit union charter any time they want. That they don’t shows they find it more profitable to be banks.
From PJStar.com about an incident at Michelle Obama’s luncheon:
“Razia Ahmed, 64, of 2015 W. Cimarron Drive was led away in handcuffs from the downtown convention center about 12:45 p.m. when Peoria police arrested her on a charge of criminal trespass.
Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, was protesting the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at the U.S. District Courthouse earlier.”
Sounds like a serious violation of the peace. All hell was surely about to break loose if they didnt’ restrain this woman!
Credit Unions used to have legitmate member restrictions, i.e. you must work for CAT to be a memeber. I don’t think “serving the employees of more than 550 companies in addition to Caterpillar, plus individuals who live or work in a 14-county service area in Central Illinois” is really restrictive.
Any industry that suffers systemic failure and requires a multi-billion dollar government bailout (some source say trillions) doesn’t really get any sympathy from my father or me.
Did you hear about the guy that bought a toaster and got a free S&L? (That’s so 80’s)
BeanCounter — I’ll grant you that it’s less restrictive than it used to be, but compared to banks, it is still very restrictive. And credit unions have never had a bailout — that was the S&L scandal. Here’s an interesting article from CUNA:
So, I’m not shedding any big crocodile tears for banks. They’re doing very well — even the small banks, as the Journal Star reports today.
I am not saying that they need to pay income taxes to somehow payback anything, that wasn’t my point. I am saying credit unions and s&Ls used to be different and distinct from banks so of course they operated under a different set of rules. Over time CUs have been granted more authority to enter differnt markets and their restrictions have been lessened. They no longer serve different markets, so it is odd (in my view unfair) that they still play by different rules. I was preschooler when this all went down, so I really can’t over come my parental conditioning. They are all pukes. You keep patronizing CEFCU and avoiding walmart and I’ll keep shopping at walmart and dealing with a real bank and karmically we will balance each other out 🙂
Ha. Well, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I worked at CEFCU for 10 years, so I’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated. 🙂
That said, I actually have nothing against banks. I just think they’re being disingenuous when they complain about credit unions. It would be like WalMart complaining about all the competition they’re getting from a local food co-op.
When it comes to getting farking dollar coins, it really doesn’t matter whether it is a farking Bank, S&L, or a Credit Union. They all make change.
In other news… any of you notice how quiet it is this Summer? There are almost no annual cicadas. Indeed instead of cicadas, I have a mess of these cicada killing wasps that are just HUGE. We have watched them pluck cicadas out of the air. Pretty impressive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_killer_wasp
My son is having a fit over them. His imagination has gone wild that he is going to get bit by one of these beasts.
“Over time CUs have been granted more authority to enter differnt markets and their restrictions have been lessened. They no longer serve different markets, so it is odd (in my view unfair) that they still play by different rules.”
Also true, incidentally, of investment companies like Fidelity and Schwab. They’ve been allowed more and more entry into traditional banking products they were once restricted from offering, and they operate under an entirely separate set of rules.
Banks, predictably, whine to the heavens that this takes away their customers etc etc etc while continuing to lobby for the ability to offer investment products banks have traditionally been restricted from offering. 🙂
I was an intern at Bank of America when that trend (investment places w/ banking products) was getting traction and hoooooo boy did everybody hate investment places.
(I adored working at BofA. It was awesome. I would never, ever, ever bank there unless I had enough money to bank in the private bank. We have to keep fleeing them when they buy our credit cards and banks ((I still have a childhood account at LaSalle … until the next time I get to Chicago to close it out due to BofA.)) Worst. Retail Banking. Ever.)
If you do get stung by a cicada killer you will never forget it. That being said it is rare that a solitary wasp will attack a person so he should not worry about those big nasty looking guys. Now the smaller yellow jackets that live underground in large nests are a different story, they will attack for almost no reason at all.
Raoul: The cicada killer wasp also has underground large nests, my neighbor and I are in eradication mode. Just have he wasp be carrying the cicada in flight whizz past the side of your face at eye level and without hestitation enter its underground home — spooky.
Mahnko thank you for your informative link.
These wasps…. How would one find their little underground lairs? We’ve been outside a lot trying to eradicate some large wasps that are invasive and aggressive species and we just can’t seem to get rid of them.
Ordinarily it wouldn’t be necessary to get rid of all of them (their population is declining) but I am highly allergic to the buggers and am also highly opposed to emergency room visits.
Also, I agree with The Mouse. If employees at a company behaved the way the state legislators are, they’d be fired. Their inability to agree on anything but their own raises is enough to make me lose faith in democracy all together.
The wasp lairs looks like very large anthills. In fact my son thought they were anthills at first. If you look at the wikipedia picture you will see the digging out… looks like ant work.
I hear the best way to beat the cicada killers is to eradicate the weedy areas of your lawn – those areas not thick with tight-rooted grass. I also hear they attack the cicada, lay eggs in the body, and bury it in the dirt, thus their affinity for loose soil.
They love the weedy areas of our yard! So far, however, they don’t seem to have any interest in humans – or dogs.
The cicada killers in our yards made a large tunnel just in the bare dirt and in the wild flower bed too under the Yarrow so I guess they go wherever the female wants to tunnel.
The cicada killers like disturbed soil for their tunnels. They do not really nest, they will kill a cicada put it in a tunnel and lay an egg on it, the larva will feed on the cicada as it grows and emerge as an adult in the spring. They lead a solitary life but for mating.