The Angry Jew

The rantings of an Angry Jew in The Pacific Northwest

    Nice job my friend…

Is there an economist in the house?  Or maybe someone who is really good at those Suduko puzzles, cause this one is giving me brain cramps.

PGE, Portland General Electric, announced today that they are going to have to raise electric rates again this year.  This will be the third residential rate increase since January.  Why, you ask.

It seems they are making too much money.  Yes, that’s right, they are making to much money. 

OK now, see if you can keep up.  Due to the two rate increases, good hydro conditions on the Columbia River, and the reopening of a coal fired generating plant, PGE is reporting record profits.  Due to these profits, PGE is going to have to pay more state income tax.  Due to these increased taxes, PGE is going to have to charge more money.

HUH?

Now, PGE blames the Legislature for this problem, by enacting a law that closed a loophole under which PGE collected hundreds of millions of dollars from local customers to pay taxes, but paid no taxes because its parent company, Enron, was able to offset the tax liability with losses at other subsidiary companies. 

Rate advocates say all PGE has to do is lower it’s rates, and the tax penalties will disappear. 

All I know is, as usual, PGE shareholders are the only ones coming out ahead on the deal, the company is paying out 73 cents a diluted share, the highest earnings PGE has reported in a year.  They must all use solar, huh?

I am, once again in the wrong racket.

Angry Jew Water and Power.  It does have a nice ring to it.

“Right now, oil companies and old men are in charge”

Right Now

Van Halen

It’s been less then a week since the whole thing started, and I am already sick of hearing about Michael Vick.  For those of you stuck in your caves, Michael Vick, star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons has been indicted on Federal charges for operating a dog fighting ring on a piece of property that he owns.

Today, on of his homies, Tony Taylor, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and plead  guilty to the charges against him.  Ouch, talk about getting sacked.  As to be expected, the head of the NAACP spoke out and reminded us that Vick is innocent until proven guilty and is being unfairly punished by the media, his corporate sponsors, blah, blah, blah.

You know what, I agree with the NAACP.  Mainly cause I’m sick of having this kind of pap shoved down my throat by the mainstream media.  Vick is getting more coverage then the war in Iraq, and we make it happen.  We do it by watching and purchasing the products advertised on tabloid news shows.  We do it by not demanding more coverage of the REAL news by the print media.  We do it by burying our heads in the sand because the truth of what is happening in our world and our nation is too “scary” to deal with.

Let me tell you, folks, it has to stop.  If not, tabloid television is going to be the only news you get.  It is up to us to tell the news services what we want with our ratings and dollars, the only two languages they speak any more.  

Just take a look at the network news shows.  I can remember a time when The CBS Evening News was the epitome of television news reporting, now its just more prettied up pap and 10 second sound bites.

What a long strange day it has been.  I wanted to try and share this with you all while it was still fresh in my memory. 

Today was one of the most incredible beer/birthdays ever.  My loyal drinking companions for the day were Dave and his Girlfriend, who earned the name the Angry Pirate last night after my birthday dinner.  She had two concoctions called Pirate Punch at the restaurant and on the ride home, had to be restrained from jumping out of my truck to pimp slap a driver who had cut us off.   She is a sweety and I love her and Dave to death.

We arrived at the waterfront with about ten minutes to spare before the first pour.   At high noon the horn sounding and the suds began to flow.  We hit gold on our first taste.  Now listen, if you are in New Jersey, and you are a loyal fan, you have to me some of this stuff.  It’s called Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubble from the Flying Fish Brewing company in Cherry Hill.  It was Ambrosia!!!  We must have tasted 20 different beers and we kept coming back to it.

We spent the day tasting, eating, comparing notes with other beer enthusiasts, tasting, and then tasting some more.  By  4 in the afternoon, we were toast. 

We had just begun our merry trek back to the light rail when Dave had an idea.  now, as anyone who knows him can attest to, this is not always a good thing. 

Earlier in the day, both Dave and the Angry Pirate had both commented on the earring I was wearing.  It was nothing special, just a plain post with a jewel on the end.  I’m not into piercing or tattoos.  I got my ear pierced one drunken night in Tokyo while on liberty about 20 years ago, and I’ve worn an earring off and on ever since.  Now Dave on the other hand has 4 gauge earrings in both ears, which I have always admired.  

Dave’s idea was to head to a piercing shop he knew of downtown and see about upgrading my jewelery.  After of four hours of drinking beer, this seemed like a good idea, so off we went. 

When we arrived at the shop, Dave pointed out all the different things I could stick in my ear.  Most of what we saw was way to big a leap for me, so we waited for someone to help us out.  I don’t have permission yet to use her name, she wanted to read my blog first, so I will just call her The Pierced Angel.  That’s exactly what she was.  Rarely have I seen a woman who had piercings that accentuated their features.  Hers did.  They highlighted her incredible eyes and fantastic smile.  She was very patient with me, and explained my options.  We all agreed that gaping (stretching) my ear up to a 12 gauge was the way to go and I picked out a nice textured silver hoop. 

While I waited, I was able to talk with the Pierced Angel and get the low down on what types of piercing were hot and what was just posers looking to imitate Brittany or Christina.  Finally came my turn in the chair.  All I really felt was a slight pinch and a tug.  Nick, my piercer, was a true artist and with The Angel as his apprentice, this shop is going to go far.  I don’t usually do endorsements, but if you are in downtown Portland and feel the need for any kind of body adornment, Straight To The Point at 322SW 3rd Street in Portland has earned the Angry Jew Seal Of Approval. 

Well, drunk, happy and with me leaning just a little bit to the left, we made our way to the light rail and called it a day.  I don’t know how we are going to top it next year, but I am sure we will think of something. 

Two Middle Schoolers here in Oregon are facing multiple count charges of Sexual Abuse because they dared to swat female classmates on their bottoms and poked fingers at their breasts.  If convicted, these two kids are going to have to register as sexual offenders for the rest of their lives.

One little question, doesn’t the prosecutor have any real criminals to catch or a better way to spend my tax dollars?  Have we reduced the crime rate so much that these are the only crimes out there?  Has everyone lost their freaking minds?

These are kids for Christ sake.   I’m not so old that I can’t remember doing the exact same thing at their age.  Sometimes a girl would chase after you, sometimes my mom would get a call from another mom, and once I got socked in the gut.  No one ever called the cops.

What really chaps my ass is the letters to the editor in the paper.  These kids are budding rapists, cried one outraged parent. Another said, my daughter felt threatened.  There was one voice of reason, a parent, who said, yes, the kids actions were inappropriate but not criminal. Get a life people.  When I was that age, if a girl liked you, she would slug you in the arm.  Guess I should have had her charged with battery, instead of taking her to the spring disco dance, huh?

You can’t read the paper anymore with out reading at least two stories about a swim coach fondling their team members or a priest getting popped for possession of kiddie porn.  What do you say we spend our money getting the vile adults who abuse children off the streets and let our kids work it out themselves.

Maybe, and I know this is pretty way out there, the parents of the girls could have called the parents of the boys and they could have solved the problem themselves.  There is a word for that kind of thing.   What is it?  Hmm, it’s right there on the tip of my tongue.

Oh yea, it’s called PARENTING.  Why not give it a try. 

Now this is too funny.  Follow this link to see the Obama Girl Video and this link to the Obama Girl VS Guilliani Girl video….Good Stuff.

Well friends, another televangelist has been called home to God.  Tammy Faye Messner lost her battle with cancer Friday and I say good riddance.  Now, most of you will be more familiar with her married name, Tammy Faye Bakker.

Oh come on, I was pretty stoned in the 80’s, but I still remember her.  Tammy Faye, wearing street ho makeup and five inch long fake eyelashes, would blubber and cry until the EPA was called out to clean up the mascara spill.  Her and her husband Jim Bakker ran the PTL (Praise The Lord) Club ministry until ole Jim got caught using ministry funds to pay hush money to a church secretary after they did a few laps around the bedroom.  That secretary, Jessica Hahn, went on to be the queen of 80’s video tramps and did several shoots for Playboy.

Their whole world came apart in 1989 when Jim was convicted of defrauding PTL supporters of $158 Million dollars to support his and Tammy’s lavish lifestyle.  It seems the Lord could only be properly worshiped from multi-million dollar homes with air conditioned dog houses and an army of servants.  Hey, we all know that buying mansions is like eating potato chips, you can’t stop at just one.

Tammy divorced Jim in 1992 while he was being passed around in Jail. 

If you caught her last interview with Larry King, you can see that indeed, the wrath of The Lord is nothing to mess with.  She looked like Skelator, after he had been dropped in an acid bath.  She said she was 99.99% sure she was going to heaven.  Sorry sweetheart, I have to hope that .01% catches up with you.

Listen I have nothing against religion.  If what you believe in gets you through the day, go for it.  What gets me lathered up is when so called preachers twist the words of the texts they are using to fit there own needs.  I don’t remember anything in the Bible along the lines of “Thou shall send Millions of dollars to those who preach my word so they may sit their bottoms on silk cushions.”