I have the same effect on computers that I do on amplifiers: I blow them out. My computer which has two huge hard drives (containing a decade of work totalling many dozens of gigabytes), a wicked-fast processor, a gig and change of RAM... and a cheap-ass piece of shit Foxconn motherboard has officially shit the bed. It won't even boot. I tried to supe it up by fiddling with the BIOS, and it blew out to the point that it won't even boot. What a waste.

So I have a few choices:

1. Hunt down a new motherboard of exactly the same type.

People are always asking me for advice on how to become rich, famous, and successful. I always ask them, "Why do you want to become rich, famous, and successful?"

It's funny because they never have a good answer. "Look," I tell them, "You don't really want to be rich, famous, and successful, but since you asked, I'll let you in on the secret."

Talk of an auto industry bailout has been crazy. Bush says he wants to make sure that taxpayer money is paid back. Repugs are saying they want to take it slow and make sure they do it right. If only they had been so prudent before rushing us into an unnecessary war that ended up bankrupting us. Who really gives a crap what the Worst President in History has to say about anything at this point?

It's the holidays. If you're skating on thin ice like most Americans, you might be thinking about cutting down on your spending this year. Whether you act on those thoughts remains to be seen. If people do curtail spending this year, the hit to retailers will put a lot of jobs in jeopardy, not just crappy retail jobs, either. Retailers have suppliers. Suppliers have distributors and shippers. Distributors and shippers buy from (mostly) overseas manufacturers. Real people work in every step of that chain.

As explained in Part I, the economy can be thought of as an organism with a number of vital organs and some non-vital organs that are still nice to have (such as the gonads of the economy -- the entertainment industry). If any one of the vital organs fails, the organism will die.