The Miami Herald reports that 1 in 5 Florida mortgage holders behind on payments.

The real news is that this includes people with normal fixed-rate mortgages, not just the variable rate sub-prime junk loans. The new spike at the end of 2008 is related to job losses.

Of historic note: the term “depression” was coined by Herbert Hoover. He felt it sounded better than the previous term used, “panic”. There really is a reason I call it the “GOPression”, besides snark, of course.

How many of you can say you actually, personally, know someone “featured on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann as the worst person in the world”?  The Northwest Florida Daily News once again features the antics of local whacko, Larry Ford.

For picky people, that was a tour de force spelling-wise for Mr. Ford, only one word misspelled, it’s amazing. He really needs a fund-raiser to get a new flag of the Army of Tennessee, his old one is extremely tattered.

In case you’re wondering, the entire world is out to get him because he’s the only “real American” left in the county or state.

Contrary to popular belief, snow isn’t good for sled dog races, but this year’s Iditarod is going to have to deal with it.

From the Anchorage Daily News : Iditarod Trail missing under deep snow

… Out with Oatley somewhere along the trail was Merchant’s husband, Bill, an Iditarod trailbreaker. He went ahead of the Invitational on a snowmobile trying to pack out a route in fresh, waist-deep snow.

Steve Perrin, owner of the Rainy Pass Lodge at Puntilla, said on Monday that Merchant’s new, 120-horsepower Yamaha Viking Professional — a snowmobile designed to go through deep snow — ended up so bogged down that two of Perrin’s sons had to help Merchant dig it out.

That snowmobile costs about $11K and is used by skiing areas to groom runs. It has large, wide-spread steering skis, and a large track. If it is bogging down, think about the two-runner sleds used by mushers. It may be time to think about a toboggan.

[Read more →]

Including the status site that might have told people what was going on you get a 502 Server Error, and a note telling you to try again in 30 seconds which will all fail.

I’m guessing hardware because some sites are visible, but the majority of Blogspot sites on my roll aren’t. C’est la Vie with the big G.