A RATHER NICE, IF COOL AND HAZY, DAY UP HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION as I prepare this entry for your edification and enlightenment. Plenty of filtered sun and trees starting to bud outside to herald spring's arrival.

Even if there's talk of serious rain likely late tomorrow, along with the onset of slightly cooler temperatures.

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AS FOR THE NEW ONLINE MALL I AM DEVELOPING TO HELP COMPLEMENT THIS WEBLOG, Your Correspondent is only now starting to work on it, as you can see here at its (eventual) online home.

Think of it, for now, as a "work-in-progress," so just be patient. And as e-tailers get added, feel free to shop around. Which, hopefully, should be more convenient than presently. (But it's not to say online shopping will disappear entirely from The Exaggerator; expect a somewhat limited presence all the more, which should help speed up page download times.)

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ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF "GOOD CONCEPT, BUT NO SENSE:"

His Fraudulency's Great Within, for the sake of leaving a positive and "glowing" legacy aside from the misadventures known otherwise as ur-RAHOWA against International Terrorism, wants the post-9/11 tax cuts (based, know, on discredited "supply-side" socioeconomic thought holding that "low taxes=jobs=social stability") to be made "complete, final and binding" after they are set to lapse in January of 2010.

Which, considering a National Debt as has already worsened all the more thanks to these anti-terrorist misadventures and an unyielding Zealotry and True Belief in discredited socioeconomic thought as has failed to create real jobs and payrolls (especially so stateside), begs the question of how the State can expect to finance itself without taxation.

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A NEW (AND, PERHAPS, BITTER) PILL FOR SUCH SEEING PRIVATISATION AS A MAGIC BULLET for promoting innovation, competition--and lower taxes:

The New Zealand government has finally acknolwedged that it made errors of judgement when it sold the state-owned rail, road and Cook Straits ferry services to a private investment house in Australia in 1993 for NZ$400 million (now worth US$314 million/C$318.27 million/£159.2 million/€202.38 million/CHF330.5 million/INR12.75 billion/¥32.92 billion/A$332.06 million) in the hopes of encouraging innovation and flexibility as were then deemed infeasable under State ownership.

Which, unfortunately, was anything but: Services were cut to laughable levels, deferred maintenance was allowed to set in, waste and inefficency held high carnival, and repeated requests for fare increases were turned down. In turn creating a state of affairs as led the Crown to purchase the track and infrastructure for a symbolic NZ$1 while the private operator was allowed to continue providing services under an Open Access Agreement.

Now, Wellington has purchased back the rail and ferry services for NZ$665 million (US$510.87 million/C$517.92 million/£259.14 million/€329.35 million/CHF537 million/INR20.73 billion/¥53.54 billion/A$539.6 million) as part of a greater government agenda towards sustainable transport policy.

In the meantime, the likely state of affairs for Kiwi commuters is best summarised in this cartoon posted on Stuff.co.nz:

(In any case, expect the New Zealand Government to invest substantially into refurbishment of existing track and equipment over the coming months as part of renationalisation.)

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"CHRISTIAN IN NAME ONLY" DEPARTMENT: Your Correspondent understands that a number of shady "mortgage rescue" and debt-consolidation/-factoring companies targeting the vulnerable of late have taken to using the "Christian business" angle to create an aura of sincerity and credibility among such caught up with substantial debts and yet unable to resolve their dilemma without resorting to the new, stricter bankruptcy laws.

(As in "using Christian principles" and invoking various passages of Scripture on their websites and other business materials.)

Come to think of it, the "Christian" angle turns out to be cheap and cheerful back-door means by which they can get around consumer-protection laws proscribing advance fees for their services as turn out, more than likely, to result in foreclosure or referral of past-due accounts to collection agencies, what with the creditors not having any knowledge of such "Christian" entities or the arrangements in question.

Thus leaving consumers falling for such (mis)adventures in Emotional Mortgage Rescue with loss of home and difficulties in finding jobs or livelihood because of the ensuing damage to their credit histories.

Could much the same thing be possible if the targets of such complaints were holding themselves out as "Jewish" or, for that matter, "Muslim" businesses? "Think about it."