PSL.... Go To He11!!

If you are an NFL season ticket holder, please repeat the following lines over and over....

The NFL owners do not care about me.

The NFL owners do not care about me.

The NFL owners do not care about me.

Whether or not you choose to pay for a Personal Seat License (PSL) is your business. If you cannot afford a PSL, well then you are screwed. Does not matter how long you have been a fan or how loyal a fan you have been. It is "pay up or shut up".

The NFL fan base was built on the backs of blue collar workers. Rich, "upper-class" fans followed their college teams. The NFL was for the Joe six-pack, lunch pail crew. "Was" is the key word because these days are numbered. Going to an NFL game is becoming the hobby of the elite. Luxury boxes, preferred parking, etc.... this article says it all. (Note: The article focuses quite a bit on gambling, but still makes the point of the average fan getting lost in the shuffle).

What NFL owners DO care about is MONEY. That is it. They do NOT care about the fan base, fan support, fan loyalty. They care about dollars. Going forward, NFL crowds will resemble crowds at Polo matches. BORING! Guess how the stands will look when the team is doing poorly..... EMPTY. With the new luxury stadium process that is sweeping through every NFL franchise, you can expect mediocre teams to have full Upper Tiers (with common fans) and 1/2 full lower tiers (with rich "fans").

It is time for NFL fans to WAKE UP. Stay at home, have friends over and watch it on TV. (Watching on TV is luxury that soon may also require payment. Sound ridiculous? Talk to me in 10 years). Stop shoveling your money to greedy owners. That money could better be spent elsewhere.

Your Vote

Who will you be voting for?
McCain?
Obama?

That is great but at Join the List we feel that you should vote to spend your money according to your convictions.

We believe you should:
1. Spend money at small, local businesses.
2. Support local farms by shopping at Farmer's Markets.
3. Do not give your money to businesses that do not support your views.
4. Keep your money at a local bank or a credit union.

Think about who you are giving your money to whether it be to buy a car, some toothpaste or an ear of corn.

Does the corporation use fair labor practices? Do they employ non U.S. citizens? Are they environmentally responsible? Are they non partisan politically? (A business should be... at least large businesses).

Think about what you are watching on television? What publications are you reading? Are you blindly supporting outlets that do not express your beliefs?

Voting for the president is great and should be done..... but if you really want to have an effect..... make choices on where you spend your $$$$.

WOW, Lehman gone...

Unbelievable.... they were making money for years on these goofy mortgage securities and would not/ could not hit the brakes.

James Cramer says it well.

It will be interesting to see how Lehman's pricing practices flesh out in the next few weeks. Were they misrepresenting the prices of these securities in order to frantically stay afloat at the end? We think some Lehman folks are going to be in some big trouble in the near future.

This is not over. Going to get worse. A lot worse.

AC

Can't say we ever really thought or cared about Anderson Cooper before, but he had us at "Hello" on this one.

http://gawker.com/5033589/anderson-cooper-madly-obsessed-with-living-lohan

Cannot agree more.

Waste of TIME

Ever wish 50 paparazzi could chase this bozo around all day filming and flashing and yelling his name?

Who is this guy?
He is the owner of TMZ.

An outlet that follows celebrities, films them and reports meaningless stories about them. The majority of the stories are tasteless. All of the stories are meaningless.

I do not feel sorry for the celebrities and I do think some bask in the attention.

the Myth of the Dow

One of the great myths of the American economy is the performance of the Dow. While the Index is a fair barometer of the economy, it is NOT a barometer of the average Americans well being. Shifts in the Dow are not that relevant as the average American does not have much at stake in the performance of the Stock Market.

GET SOME....

Real nice... taxpayer funds paying for the purchase of condoms and the advertising, marketing and distribution costs. Who is this helping?

At Join the List, we do not voice an opinion about promoting sex vs. promoting chastity or any moral position regarding this matter. What Join the List is concerned about is the use of government taxpayer funds to promote a non essential purpose.

Taxes should pay for infrastructure. Schools, highways, roads, etc...

Taxes should be used sparingly and used for a purpose that assists a large majority of a population or community.

We believe that the solution to widespread corporate dominance as well as government tax fund abuse is controlled by individuals choosing where they spend their personal funds. This promotes independance and reliance on personal choices. If someone is old enough to have sex, they are old enough to go to the store and buy condoms. Plain and simple.

"Where Are These Kids Going To Learn Such Things?"

FROM: http://eddriscoll.com


By Ed Driscoll · June 05, 2008 12:24 PM · The Return of the Primitive

Andrew Klavan, the author of True Crime, adopted by Clint Eastwood for the big screen, albeit in a slightly bowdlerized form, visits an inner city fourth grade class, and comes away noting:

Beating poverty in America nowadays is largely a matter of personal behavior. Get a high school diploma, don’t have kids until you’re married, don’t get married until you’re 21, and you probably won’t be poor. It also helps if you work hard, show up on time, act courteously, and avoid anything felonious.

But where are these kids going to learn such things? It’s the stuff you just sort of absorb in a healthy, traditional, two-parent home, and that’s exactly what they’re missing. If they learn what they’ve lived, they’re done for—the girls too likely to “come out pregnant” like their mothers, the boys to be underemployed and maybe even do time.

You can’t legislate responsibility, either. Personal behavior in a free society has to be a matter of choice—choice without which there is no virtue—virtue without which a society can’t be free.

It seems to me that leaves these kids only one recourse: the culture. Where the institution of family is broken, only the surrounding culture can teach people the inner structures required for a life of liberty.

Many conservatives often seem to have given up on culture or not to care. There’s a strong strain of philistinism on the right. When we talk about “culture wars,” we usually mean preventing the courts from redefining marriage or promoting abstinence instead of birth control: culture, in other words, as the behavioral branch of politics.

Culture, in the true sense, is more than that. It’s the whole engulfing narrative of our values. It’s the stories we tell. Leftists know this. These kids get an earful from the Left every day. Their schools serve up black history in a way guaranteed to alienate them from the American enterprise. Their sanctioned reading list denies boys the natural fantasies of battling villains and protecting women from harm. Any instinct the girls might have that their bodies and their self-respect are interrelated is negated by the ubiquitous parable of celebrity lives. And I hardly need mention the movies and TV shows that endlessly undermine notions of manly self-discipline, feminine modesty, patriotism, and all the rest.

Conservatives respond to this mostly with finger-wagging. But creativity has to be answered with creativity. We need stories, histories, movies of our own. That requires a structure of support—publishing houses, movie studios, review space, awards, almost all of which we’ve ceded to the Left.

There may be more profitable businesses in the short run. The long run, as always, depends on the young. If you want to win their hearts, you have to tell them stories. I have reason to believe they’ll listen.

It's all part of the Great Relearning, especially important when the rest of culture is essentially ashamed of any history that's prior to 1968.

Gas Guzzling

What is the definition of Insanity???

Doing the same thing over & over and expecting different results.

How else would you describe the population's refusal and inability to do anything to act on rising gas prices? The only thing people are willing to do is complain.

"Why isn't the government doing anything?"

We live in a Democracy and Capitalist society. People normally praise this system.... unless it is not going on their favor (which is not often). It is controlled by supply and demand.

Why are the oil companies raising prices?
BECAUSE THEY CAN!!!

You would too if you were them. When they raise prices... demand does not decrease. They would be idiots to lower prices.

How about instead of complaining about the government, you start minimizing the use of gasoline and oil?

We know it is not easy, but.....
CAR POOL
USE MASS TRANSPORTATION
CANCEL LONG DRIVING TRIPS

If everyone decreased the gasoline/ oil consumption by 1%, it would have a huge effect on the oil companies. 2%, even more.

Why not try this instead of whining that the government is not doing anything?

China Email....

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear or is it that we just do not think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors. Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?


DO IT YOURSELF!!


Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong), simply choose another product or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, however you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter?

If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is.. do not wait for the government to act.

Just go ahead and assume control on your own.



If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory. ** Downside ??


The solution ?

Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. We will not implement this UNTIL June 4, and we will only continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

Remember, June 4 to July
4.

Send this to everybody you know.

Show them we are Americans

and NOBODY can take us for granted.

If we can't live without cheap Chinese

goods for one month out of our lives,

WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!



Pass it
on America !!!

Lawyer Madness

Not exactly a new problem or thought, but Lawyers are destroying this country. Bizarre and outlandish lawsuits place a penalty on nearly every product we buy.

Lawyers have rewritten the rules and have successfully rigged the system where they get paid no matter what. Pretty good website on this....

Spitzer

If you voted for this a$$hole..... congratulations!!!

Keep pulling the lever! Keep playing a role in democracy.

OR-
You can use your influence with your dollars.

Shop at local businesses as much as possible.
Try to avoid shopping at huge corporations as much as possible.
Do not shop at stores or buy products that do not support your beliefs.
Do not watch movies or television that do not support your beliefs.

Hey Cubie Jockey!!

When asked "what do you do for a living?", I wonder how many people can answer... "uh, I sit in a box... I stare at a screen and I shake my mouse occassionally."

How has it come to this?
How are more people not working from their homes in this age of electronic access?

How many hours per week do you actually spend in a box like the one above? (Although that picture looks pretty old school. That has got to be early 80's. The monitor is ridiculous and the PC is on top of the desk).

Saw this pretty funny post on cubicles.

This one actually seems to be glorifying cubicles. Hey, doesn't matter how you improve upon it.... it is still a CUBICLE !!!!

Keeping Up with the KarTRASHians

How is it possible that this show was made and continues to exist? It boggles the mind.

We have a connected Hollywood insider. A person with wealthy parents and connections but no personal talent or significant accomplishments. Then she releases her own sex tape. BAM! Her own cable show.

It is preposterous, but obviously it works.

I can't stand that pose she always has with her hand on her hip and showing her back. As if she is saying, "check out my booty!". She is cleary told to do this as part of the marketing scheme. Extremely annoying.

In keeping up with the point of Join The List:
Watching this show as a "guilty pleasure" is really more than that. You are supporting not only a terrible show, but also a terrible concept. Besides being very bad television it also promotes a very bad role model to young girls. It is a slap in the face to family values. (How is Bruce Jenner mixed up with this sleaze?)

MAKE DECISIONS WHERE YOUR TIME AND MONEY IS NOT SUPPORTING THIS SORT OF DRIVEL.

Honorable mention goes to this festering sore of cable television.

Mortgage Mess.... Its a Wonderful Life!!

We will leave the in depth analysis of the recent mortgage debacle to the experts. The simplified "Join The List Analysis" is as follows...

Big, fat corporations doing whatever they can to spur "growth".

Broker to fat, rich customer: "Hey Nigel, the market is slowing and we are not sure where to put your money to get the returns you want without too much risk. How about this mortgage backed security portfolio? Higher returns and no risk! Whaddya say?"

Too good to be true? It sure was.

Again.... we are not against Capitalism. We ARE against how capitalism creates this exponential need for unachievable growth.

In this case, huge mortgage companies started bundling every mortgage they could get their hands on and issuing underlying securities. When they ran out of mortgages to buy and bundle they created new mortgages as if out of thin air. Offering loans with teaser rates and no money down. They even doubled down on the mortgages that were already bundled. Then they still labled these newest issuances as low risk despite the fact that they were backed by cr*p.

Anybody surprised the house of cards fell down?

Hate to keep referencing movies, but good old George Bailey warned against this way back in 1946. I wish that we could do a better job of warding off the mean, old Mr. Potter in the real world.

Other People's Money

Here at Join The List, we are certainly not economists. One thing we do know is that with publicly traded companies, the need to create and expand growth is never ending. Shareholders are not satisfied with status quo, so these companies are forced to squeeze out more "growth". They need to create stock appreciation at any cost.

The benefit: Stock growth for shareholders (real money from stock growth is really only applicable for the wealthy) and lower costs for goods (hopefully).

The cost: Loss of jobs to technology, loss of jobs to outsourcing, loss of good jobs to be replaced by lower paying service sector jobs. Loss of benefits, potential risks to environment (ie. outsourcing of USA jobs at plants with environmental standards to places without). The list goes on and on....

Again, Join The List is not against Capitalism. All we are saying is that consumers can make more of an effort to support local, privately owned businesses. Just think of this next time you pass a quaint local coffeehouse to buy a venti mocha latte.

In recent years, the environmental movement has had quite a bit of success with this. Now advertisements for international conglomerates flaunt their great desire to be environmentally friendly. Yeah right! They would fill the Grand Canyon up to the rim w/ sand if it would mean another penny of profit on their financial statements. The point is that corporations could care less about the environment, but now are making efforts in order to please their customers.

And besides.... corporations have no soul. Even "hip" companies like Apple and Starbucks. Regardless of how they promote themselves.... profit is by FAR their greatest priority.

There is actually a great movie that describes the struggle between the major corporate world and financial systems vs. small business (with a shred of loyalty to workers) trying to survive. It is called Other People's Money. The movie is pretty hokey and Danny DeVito is NOT a convincing high powered executive, but it is still a pretty good flick. What ever happended to Penelope Anne Miller anyway?

Why do we elect....?

Not the hugest George Carlin fan. Find he can be cantankerous and way too radical for my tastes. But, the dude is funny. No question about that.

Saw one of his routines on TV years ago and it has always stuck with me. He asked, "Why do we elect these rich a**holes?" He furthered this by noting that "... they don't give a f*ck about you!"

He has a great point. Who has less interest and less to gain in your well being than some billionaire?

Join The List - Introduction

At Join The List, we aim to spread the idea that people wage far more political influence by where they spend their money than by who they vote for in any given election.

While Capitalism has proven to be the most effective economic system in modern times, it does have it's failings. We believe that these failings can be best controlled by effective consumer choices, rather than Government or political intervention.

What do we mean by "effective consumer choices"? That phrase varies according to different beliefs, but we do feel that great change can occur by a widespread consciensness that individual spending on a micro scale can have sweeping effects on a macro scale.

Virtually every aspect of life in Capitalism is run on the basis of money. In every case, cash takes precedence over values no matter how good or bad the intentions. This is obvious for consumer business, but is also relevant to most every government, industry or organization. Law, Medicine, Politics, Education and even Religion all bow to the power and influence of money.

In Democracy, we are often told that we as individuals have power through our vote to elect individuals into government/ political roles. In reality, we wage for more power with the money that we spend each day. We at Join The List hope to encourage people to make daily decisions when spending their money that will support their own beliefs and values.