Buyer Beware... Again

A while back I linked to a story on bad Chinese drywall… since then the story has grown and grown and today as I am sitting in South Florida, the lead story on the news is none other than… Bad Chinese Drywall… A quick Google search and you see major coverage of this story (people are calling it a “Massive” problem) is now taking place… and guess what there is nowhere to go on this.. no one to get retribution from or sue… yep that’s what happens when you deal with these folks. Now people will be going out of business and bankrupt because of this… and I have been warning and warning… now we (those of us who never went cheap and bought in) can sit back and watch as all of you who went that route have to worry that your glass and aluminum is not going to fall apart or fail miserably. Somehow I have a feeling we will see the failures come to us, just a matter of time. Maybe now people who still are tempted by this whole adventure will realize that buying material made in North America is the only way to go. Otherwise you may be the lead story someday in a place other than this blog. (I’ll link to some of the stories below)

Elsewhere…

-- Let’s talk DOE which is becoming a favorite of mine and instead of putting it in the links, I’ll throw it here… the New York Times did a nice piece on the new Secretary of Energy Dr Chu. The man is facing some challenges, and heck he probably has no idea how hamhanded some of the people he inherits really are. Oh and there is an opening for his #2 by the way… anyway the story can be found HERE.

-- Our industry does lack a true “ambassador” though that could go to Washington somewhat unencumbered. You know like an envoy to the middle east like former secretary of states like Warren Christopher and James Baker… If we had a guy/gal that could go to Washington and work our industry without being attached or an a payroll of an “evil” trade group (the “evil” is because that’s how all trade groups are looked at by some of the morons out there). Now I have no idea how we would compensate but to me a perfect candidate would be Jack Deyo… the man would immediately command respect on the hill, he’s a veteran and a business owner and would put us in a much better light. Just an idea but every day I believe we fall further and further behind the special interests…

-- Remember last year at this time all the talk was BIM… BIM.. BIM… whatever happened there? Yes I was solidly on that bandwagon and still do see the advantages but I was clearly wrong about how quickly it would become a significant player at our end of the industry. Thankfully smarter people than me (which adds up to about 2499 actually) at my company made the right call.

-- I was in the car for a ton last Friday and while I love Satellite radio I must say the commercials (on places like ESPN Radio) just kill you. Every ad is for either credit protection, lawyers who will help you with bad credit, bankruptcy, and lawyers who will help you with bankruptcy. I mean you start to think after a while, are the only people who listen to this stuff broke or about to be broke? Or is this just an offshoot of the growing economic storm? Or are these folks the only ones with marketing or ad budgets left? Anyway you slice it… it’s not fun.

-- How’s your brackets doing? I am still alive… but I really have no chance… meanwhile the King of West Virginia, aka Joe Staffileno of Zeledyne is in position to win his poll yet again.. he wins every year and if he wins this year I am officially changing his name to Joey Brackets… much easier to spell…

Off to the links!

Some assorted Chinese Drywall nightmare stories.. and the stories are scary with lots of words like “toxic” and “deadly”… yikes…

-- The LA Chronicle weighs in HERE.
-- ABC News HERE
-- CNN HERE

And I could go on and on and on… but I won’t…

-- Watch out YOUTUBE is cracking down on… Christmas Carols?

-- And a sign of the 2000’s… a mistrial by IPhone… man oh man jury duty nightmares..

Video of the Week:

A guy trying to pole dance… and if that’s not funny enough, his choice of music… the Doobie Brothers… (Don’t get me wrong I love the Doobie’s but not exactly the right music…)