5:13 p.m.
I wasn’t even aware that Arm Wrestling Machines existed:
Arm-wrestling machine pulled after breaking 3 players’ arms
“Distributor Atlus Co. said yesterday it will remove all 150 “Arm Spirit” arm wrestling machines from Japanese arcades after three players broke their arms grappling with the machine’s mechanized arm.”
Japan . . . of course!
5:22 p.m.
Though you’d never know it from the way Wall Street is behaving lately, the mortgage and credit mess is still a nationwide issue, and now the threat of lawsuits has been added to the mix:
“It’s a three-part business cycle now,” said Don Lampe, a partner with the law firm Womble Carlyle, whose specialty is mortgage matters. “Boom, bust and recrimination. We’re moving into the recrimination phase.”
Recriminations involving lawsuits against mortgage brokers and loan officers for putting people into loans for which they should never have qualified, as well as potential lawsuits against real estate appraisers who over-inflated the value of property they appraised, leaving buyers holding onto homes that are worth much less than the loans they took out to pay for them.
Me? I’m watching with utter disbelief as the Fed bails out the financial institutions and the stock market. I mean, four major banks plugged into the Federal cash siphon just today — as if the government has money to lend. Our government is as deeply in debt as the population, so all this “cash” supposedly being pumped into the system is just make-believe, really. There’s nothing behind it but wishful thinking.
I feel like I’m witnessing a Las Vegas magic act, but on a much grander scale — smoke, mirrors and lots of ooohs and aaaaahs from the media and Wall Street, but none of it is real. How long can this be sustained? And what will happen when the curtain is finally pulled aside to reveal the emptiness of it all?
Or have we reached the point in our global economy where the shell game IS the game? Because there’s no way the United States government and financial institutions could pull such a wide-scale charade financial off without the full cooperation of the governments of the rest of the world’s leading economies.
I suppose it’s in everyone’s best interest that the band keep playing, no matter how much water the ship takes on . . .
7:29 p.m.
The Victory Park development here in Dallas seems to be in a spot of trouble — though you won’t hear anyone associated with the project breathing a word. The other day, when I looked out the window of the Dallas W residence where we live, I noticed a field of smooth asphalt freshly laid where there was supposed to be a building with shops.
Alarmed, I typed my way to the Victory Park website, and saw that the map of the development had taken on a rather less than desirable twist: “parking lot”, “parking lot” and “parking lot” were now designated where there had previously been towers, bistros and clothing boutiques.
Brian and I have both been commenting recently as to how slowly the construction of the Mandarin Hotel and Residences has been progressing. When we first moved in, the completion date was 2009 — now it’s been pushed back to 2010, and there are still no floor-plans or sales information available for the residential units.
I can’t imagine being a lease-holder for one of the businesses that first opened in the development, thinking that I was going to be sitting on a gold-mine of potential foot traffic from the surrounding hotels, restaurants and shops, only to find myself surrounded, instead, by parking lots and delayed hotel openings.
I looked all over the web for any mention of troubles plaguing the Victory Park development, but it all seems to be on the QT. I suppose when you have as much clout as the Perot family does around here, negative news can be . . . delayed, much like hotel openings.
But don’t forget to check out our nifty, daily Victory Park Cam page!
9:03 p.m.
Ouch!:
“To kick off the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China last week unleashed a dazzling spectacle of fireworks, musical performances, and other displays of grandeur. But then came a much-needed reality check, as protesters, “with less pomp but considerable courage,” used the occasion to highlight China’s dismal record on everything from human rights to environmental degradation. In Beijing, Reporters Without Borders demanded the release of 100 imprisoned journalists and online activists, rolling out a banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs. At the Great Wall, six Westerners unfurled a banner with the Olympic motto, “One World, One Dream,” to which they added a kicker, “Free Tibet.” Rights groups spotlighted China’s repression of the Falun Gong religious movement. In short, if China thought its coming-out party would make us forget everything else, it was, thankfully, quite mistaken.”
I think the Chinese government may have overestimated the enthusiasm with which the world embraces a scoundrel.
