[Rhodes22-list] Brad, Andrew, Chris G., Rummy, et. al. Your topic makes MSM!(Not Political?)(Social Affliction?)

Thu Oct 2 09:07:49 EDT 2008

Ed,

It gets worse (see below).

Brad

----------------------

    Oprah Winfrey's mother should not have to pay a high-end fashion
store the more than $150,000 it says it is owed because the store
extended credit despite knowing her troubles managing debt, according
to a new court filing.

    Valentina Inc. sued Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee of Milwaukee, in
July, contending that she racked up a bill of $155,547.31 in purchases
and interest as of July 1. She was required to make a minimum monthly
payment of $2,000 to the store, the suit says.

    Mediation between the two sides failed last week, prompting Lee to
file a counterclaim contending she does not owe the money.

    The account is "unconscionable, and therefore, unenforceable
because Valentina knowingly and unfairly took advantage of Lee's lack
of knowledge, ability, and/or capacity when Valentina created the
account," the civil lawsuit says.

    It is the second time Lee and Valentina have been in conflict over
her wardrobe bill.

    In 2002, Lee was ordered to pay $35,000 upfront and make monthly
payments of $5,000 until another past-due bill of $174,285 was paid,
according to court records.

    As part of the resolution of that case, a court order dismissing
the case included the phrase, "Valentina Boutique, Inc., shall not at
any time extend further store credit to the Defendant, Vernita Lee."

    The 2002 case was dismissed as long as Lee made the payments,
which she did, according to the counterclaim.

    Lee has had an open-ended charge account with Valentina since
January 2004, according to the recent civil case.

    Lee also contends that the store violated the Truth in Lending Act
by not disclosing the finance charge and annual percentage rate in the
account more conspicuously.

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 7:18 AM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
> October 1, 2008 - 13:13 ET
> Glenn Beck: Alcoholics will save America
>
> GLENN: You know what, the FDIC, do you know where the FDIC went and doubled,
> more than doubled the insurance now? It went from $100,000 in the bank to
> $250,000 in the bank. It's all guaranteed by the federal government. Why did
> they do that? Why did they do that? My first thought is because what was
> worth $100,000 now takes $250,000? Is that maybe what it is? I don't know.
> They did that because they guaranteed these mutual funds and when they did
> that, the banks said, what the hell are you doing? People are going to take
> their money out of the bank and put them in the mutual funds. So this is a
> way for them to correct the problem that they just created. They are never
> the solution. They are always the problem. Some let's just, let's think this
> one through. Let's just say that the government decides to bail out these
> banks and erase the bad mortgages from the banks' books. The government then
> now holds the paper until the housing market comes back. How long is the
> housing market going to take before it comes back? When you know you've got
> a shoe out there ready to drop, that when the government starts to release
> this paper, it's going to flood the market with more supplies. It's crazy, a
> little thing called supply and demand. How are you going to get the housing
> market -- the housing market will be artificially created. It will be an
> artificial bubble. If things start to go up, it's artificially created by
> the government. And all the government has to do is to release those houses
> and the prices will go down again. But that's not the story they are telling
> you. They are saying that they are going to hold the paper until the housing
> markets come back and then the government gets it off their books and then
> money is going to be so profitable. We are going to be rich. But in the
> meantime if the government's plan works, as it never does but let's just say
> it does because we're living in fantasy land, millions of Americans will
> have no equity in their homes. If you originally put 20% down and your house
> is worth less now than 80% of the purchase price, you have no equity. You
> might be able to afford your mortgage but you can't afford to sell your
> house because if you do, you are not going to have any cash to put down on
> the next house. So you stay. Paycheck to paycheck, you can't move. Things
> get bad. Can you afford your house?
>
> This is the thing. Everybody bought houses and, "Well, it's never going to
> get worse than this. It's all going to be great." The only reason why I
> didn't buy into that is because it's been bad, and I said that. I said those
> very things one time. Oh, what a stupid idiot. I actually said one time to
> my wife, we'll never make less than this. I made like a quarter of that for,
> like, ten years after. This is the dumbest thing that you could ever say.
> You don't buy for the future being great. You're prudent and you're like,
> okay, you know, that way if one way or the other, we're good.
>
> So you can't sell your house, you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can't
> move. So if you can't move, how much money are the Realtors going to make?
> How about the mover industry? Are they too big to fail? The property title
> companies, the mortgage brokers, the real estate attorneys, the house
> inspectors. On and on and on and all the way to the places that those people
> shop, or don't shop anymore. Trickle-down economics. Trickle, trickle,
> trickle. People lose jobs because those people aren't spending money at
> those stores. Most people start to tighten spending. Trickle-down economics.
> So go ahead, congress. Take the foreclosed mortgages off the banks' books,
> but then what? Trickle. You know who's going to save this country? This is
> an opinion. Nobody's ever going to say this. You know who's going to save
> this country? Alcoholics. Yeah. Yeah, winos, luscious. Drug addicts. That's
> who's going to save this country. Because for those of us who are winos and
> in recovery, we know how this game works. Only the -- darn it, if you're a
> recovering alcoholic. Today's the day to say, yes! I'm an alcoholic! Hello,
> my name is Glenn and I'm an alcoholic. This is the day for you to celebrate
> your alcoholism. This is the day for you to say, wait a minute, wait a
> minute, wait a minute, I've already been down this road; I know this answer.
> My life was completely spiraling out of control and nobody -- they would
> have killed me if somebody would have said, "Oh, Glenn, oh, my gosh, you are
> so poor, you can't afford anything, your life is out of control, you're on
> the verge of losing your job. Let me pay your bar bill." That wouldn't have
> helped. I would have been dead by now. It wouldn't have helped if somebody
> was paying for my drinks. I wouldn't have benefitted from somebody, you
> know, giving me a loan while I was sleeping in my own vomit. That really,
> that really wouldn't have been a good thing. Enable, enable, enable,
> trickle, trickle, trickle. Alcoholics, did you need to hit the bottom? Yep.
> You know who alcoholics -- you know how I know when an alcoholic isn't going
> to make it? And alcoholics will tell you this. We're very judgmental people.
> I can tell you when a person says to me, "Well, I don't think I want to -- I
> don't think I want to, you know, drink anymore. I think I've hit the
> bottom." I'm pretty sure when somebody says to me, when somebody says to me,
> "I was laying in the fetal position in the floor and it was life or death.
> It was do I die or do I live," that person, that person who said it was at
> that moment that I said, "You know what, I can't do it like this anymore,"
> that person is going to survive. The ones that are like, "I don't know, it
> wasn't so bad," they're going to drink again. They may be sober for a little
> while. They may be dry for a little while but they're going to go back. Not
> to say that I couldn't go back and drink again. I mean, it's in all of us.
> It's in all of us. It makes life easier. Just like money makes life easier,
> alcohol for me makes life easier, for a while. And then it's out of control
> and I can't do it anymore. I needed to lose everything. I needed to know
> there was no other place for me to go. I needed to be in the darkest place,
> the most painful time of my life, that didn't get any darker because there
> was no one there, because I had created a horrible, horrible place. That's
> when I faced my storm. And you have a choice. Be destroyed by that storm or
> understand what that storm is and move to the other side. And the other side
> of the storm is sunshine and love and warmth and security. I'm not secure in
> my future. I'm really not. I don't know -- and I mean this sincerely. I
> don't know in 2009 whether I'll have a job. I don't know that. I have
> contracts, but the whole world could change. I don't know where I'm going to
> be living in 2009. I don't know what I'm going to be doing. I hope I'm doing
> this. But you know what? I'm not happy. Used to be that I had to control,
> but I don't care anymore. I just want to be happy. I just want to be whole.
> I just want to be with my family. And going through the storm, whether it be
> an economic storm or an alcoholic storm or whatever it is, going through it
> and realizing the storm will never kill you because that storm you created,
> it only stops you from getting into the sunlight. Stop feeding it. Stop
> giving out of power. Take the lumps. Is there anybody out there that says,
> I'd rather take the lumps right now. If it means really bad pain, I'll take
> the lumps so my kids don't have to take the lumps. I mean, congress thinks
> that we can't handle this. What they think, if we nosedive, they are going
> to lose their job. That's what they really think. Right now it's still all
> about them. It's all about the enabler. "I can fix this problem. I can fix
> this. I can save you." No, you can't. No, you can't. Especially since
> enablers are part of the problem. So I'm sorry, but until there's a bailout
> that actually makes sense and is clean and there's no special interests,
> until it resembles some sort of a free market bailout that is tax
> incentives, that puts the burden on our shoulders not through the
> government, not through their oversight but says I'm going to open up these
> markets so people can change, people can make their own way, people can
> invest, we can make it easier for people to do business, then you know what,
> bring it on. Bring it on. Because watch what we can do. Sit down, congress,
> sit down, Mr. President, get the hell out of our way. Watch what we can do.
> Our forefathers saw us in action over 200 years ago. They knew we can do it.
>
> We've read about how they conquered things. Let them sit down now. Watch us,
> how we conquer and they'll be proud. They will know they built a country and
> a Constitution that could withstand near devastation, but it would survive.
> And watch out. Because any alcoholic will tell you once you've been in that
> fetal position, once you've had to look into the abyss and say who the heck
> am I, what do I really believe, we are stronger, we are better, we are
> freer. A friend of mine said to me one time, you don't even know who you
> are. You don't even realize the power that you have inside of you. I thought
> she was nuts. I said, I know exactly who I am. She said, no, you don't;
> someday you'll figure it out. It took my personal crash to figure it out.
> And who I am is a guy that doesn't have answers. I'm a guy who looks for
> answers. I'm a guy who won't give up. I'm a guy who will make mistakes. I'm
> a guy who doesn't know the future. I don't know my own future, but I don't
> care. Because I'm a guy who believes that goodness surrounds each one of us,
> that we are meant to be happy. We just have to get out of our way to be
> happy. And no one can make you happy.
>
> Here, can I make you happy? No. No one in make you happy. You just have to
> stop being miserable and that is really hard to do. But once you figure it
> out, that usually it's you, your expectations, your belief in something else
> to get your happiness or to get your wealth or belief in Washington or
> whatever else that's making you miserable, you'll stop being miserable. Once
> you realize that, you'll stop being miserable because you won't have faith
> in that. You'll have faith in where faith belongs, in the designer of the
> universe that said you should be happy. I created this. What, do you think I
> did tulips? You think I did cherry trees? You think I did all of this so
> you'd be miserable? You're meant to be happy. Just get out of your own way.
> This is our time. This is our challenge. This is our opportunity, to right
> our own wrongs. To change the course of not only our country, the world, by
> not focusing on the world and our country but ourselves. Alcoholics,
> recovering alcoholics, stand up. Tell your friends and your neighbors, you
> know what? The bad ain't as spooky as you think it is. The bottom ain't the
> bottom, man. The bottom is actually a very, very horrifying place that I
> never want to go back to again, but you know what? I'm kind of glad I was
> there. Because now look what my life is like. Now I understand what I have.
> I understand what's important and I understand the power of the individual
> and the power of setting things right, not just burying them.
>
> Posted for your affliction.
>
> Ed K
> Greenville, SC, USA
>
>
>
> --
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