Well first, I'm back from vacation. It was good, pictures are on their way eventually. Second, my 360 is back. Actually it's a different one. Though I like having it back quicker, this kinda sucks. First, it's louder than the old one, by a lot. It's louder than the airplanes I work around. That makes me sad. The other big issue is some of the XBLA games don't seem to have a save file assosciated with them. Braid and Castle Crashers are gone. I have the games still, but I have to start all over. Not that I didn't enjoy playing either one, but I had a lot of progress in those games.

Oh well, at least I can play my games again. Rock Band 2 arrived while I was gone, so I'm looking forward to playing it.

Regardless what your political views are, you should be mad too. It seems that we've heard how we have a free and open market economy, and then the government bails out companies that are way to short-sighted/ greedy. Of course I'm talking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac right now, but this could apply to the automotive, airline, or any other industry.

The way government bailouts tend to work is the people in charge continue to make craploads of money, and the front-line employees and consumer get screwed. Sure it looks like a good thing at first, but long-term it's perhaps one of the worse things that can happen. People now in forclosure won't be protected later when they can't make their mortgage payments in a couple of years. They're still tied to the shoddy terms they agreed to in the first place. If the government forces the company to cut costs, it will be frontline personnel who loses jobs first. These are the guys who make money for any company. Finally, in the case of the mortgage industry, non-"preferred" shareholders, you and me, lose any stake in the companies.

Let me be the first to say I hate to see anybody made redundant, but that is a risk of business. Unfortunately our government has made a habit of allowing companies that underperform continue doing so because taxpayers have money to bail them out. Now that we've bailed out these knuckle-heads, the big three want bailed out too. This'll sound odd coming from a GM family, but they need to fail in order to grow. How is it the Japanese automakers have been making hybrids for a decade now in preperation for today? Are we saying that the American companies are dumber than foreign counter-parts? I don't think our engineers are any dumber, or even any smarter. I'm thinking just lazy. The heads of industry know they can fail and be bailed out by big brother.

Unfortunately there is such a thing as tough love. It applies to "grown-ups" as well as children. At some point in your life you realize you have to work for what you get, it can't always be handed to you. The only thing in life you're entitled to is death, no more and no less.