I’m tired of politics. Actually, I was tired of politics on November 6th, 2002 when we stopped congratulating George Bush on his win and started asking Hillary if she’d run in four years.

For some reason it appears that the incentive to hold public office has become too great.

Clair McCaskill took out a $500,000 personal loan to float the rest of her upcoming campaign commercials.

$500,000!

Assuming she’s not a financial idiot, she has high hopes of seeing a return on that $500 large, to the point where she can repay the loan. Where is that money going to come from?…

Back in August I wrote about how shopping a generation behind will save you money. I also listed a link to get a free Schick Titanium razor blade.

Well, about eight weeks after signing up, I got my new four-bladed Schick Quattro in the mail. It came in a neatly packaged box with the Schick brand and logo all over it.

Funny, but just two weeks later, Gillette sent me an unsolicited free Fusion razor in a very similar box, with very similar logo placement. In addtion, they packaged coupons into the box for discounts on refill cartiges. …

A few months ago I got back into aviation and engineering with a local company. They offer excellent benefits and provide an attractive match to a 401(k) held by T. Rowe Price.

So a few days ago I started the paperwork to roll over my existing American Funds retirement account to the new T. Rowe Price plan from my employer.

What a headache…

Forms to fill out from both T. Rowe Price and American Funds which seems simple enough, but then I found out that American Funds wants an official letter of acceptance on official letterhead from T. Rowe Price stating the type of retirement account they’re sending capital to. On …

As a TD Ameritrade APEX customer, I’m getting a sneak preview of a revamped website for the broker.

The new look is, well, different. The menus have been redesigned, but the overall menu structure is the same. Data is organized a bit better, but the all-green layout is a bit overpowering.

New research material is provided by Ford Equity Research and TheStreet.com, both of which compliment the existing MarketEdge and S&P Reports nicely.

The Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray is a new tool that examines your portfolio for diversification, although you can use it free here. You can also use …

As crude oil ($wtic: chart) continues to hover around $60 per barrel, the peak oil controversy continues.

The peak oil theory is growing in popularity, suggesting that there is a finite amount of oil on the planet, and we’ve extracted more than half of it. As such, it seems we live in an age of diminishing returns on our natural resources.

However, an “economic geologist” name Eric Cheney from the University of Washington seems to think we’re in the clear.

“Eric Cheney said Friday in a news release that changing economics, technological advances and efforts such as recycling and substitution make the world’s mineral resources virtually infinite.”

Source:United Press International

His …

Another contender in the Roth IRA race is PrimeWest Energy Trust (PWI: chart, web, news). PrimeWest is another Canadian Royalty Trust that deals in the production, extraction, development, and marketing of oil and natural gas. Most of the production from PWI comes from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, and produces nearly 40,000 boe per day.

Like my Provident Energy (PVX: chart, web, news) holdings, PWI pays a monthly dividend distribution that totals about 13% annually. On top of that, TD Ameritrade has indicated that PWI does subscribe to a DRIP program, allowing my monthly dividends to be rolled right back into the stock.

PrimeWest has a healthy profit margin at 43% over the last twelve months, but remember, this does include a period of high oil and gas prices ($75, and $14 respectively). Quarterly earnings are growing at a respectable 20% rate, year over year, and the diluted EPS is a modest 2.76 per share.

A big mark against the trust is the $382 million in debt as of the most recent quarter, and only $50 million in cash. The oil industry is an expensive playground to play in, but I’d like to see the cash on hand match up a little better.

The PWI payout ratio (POR) is flirting with 114%, the quarterly revenue growth is in negative territory at -3.2%, and natural gas prices continued to be weak due to supply, all of which explains why they just cut their next dividend payment to $0.25 Canadian, or about $0.22 USD.

I don’t write about health and fitness very often (or at all, for that matter), but I had a revelation that I found very interesting after a trip to the gym and a freak encounter with an unopened bag of Oreo’s.

After going about a mile on the treadmill, the fancy computer told me that I burned about 160 calories as a result of my efforts. Muscles aching and sweating profusely, I left the gym and went home. When I walked through the kitchen, a brand new bag of Oreo’s was calling my name.

Knowing I’d feel guilty about snarfing down some …

According to initial reports, there was no radio active material found in air samples taken by a U.S. aircraft this week.

According to the report published by MSNBC News Services, this could mean one of a few things:

1. The explosion was not nuclear, but caused by conventional explosives
2. The site was so well sealed that no radioactive material escaped
3. The “test” was small enough that it didn’t release a significant amount of radioactive material

In either case, it appears the North Koreans “nuclear test” is being perceived as a nuclear dud.

Being in a position to call a bluff at a nuclear …

Evidently, I have a problem with electric dryers.

After multiple battles with used electric dryers in my rental house, I broke down and bought a brand new dryer. I haven’t had any problems since.

However, now I’ve got a problem with my own electric dryer. It’s a blowin’, but it’s not bringin’ the heat!

Evidently, I have a bad temperature switch relay; a little black box that 4 wires plug into to control the heat level.

Naturally, I can’t buy just one. I have to buy a pair (even though I only need one), and the whole thing will run …

Confirming the rumor and speculation, Edmund Daukoru, OPEC president, made a 1 million barrel per day cut in production official.

In an interesting comment, Daukoru stated:

“…the cartel was considering holding an emergency meeting before then to discuss what to do about falling prices.”

Source: MSNBC Article

I find it interesting that the President of OPEC feels they need to do something about falling prices, considering they’re still twice as high as they were just two years ago.

Oil prices have fallen recently, as they nearly always do at this time of year, and some people consider this activity a “plunge” in prices.

It’s also interesting to see the conflict of interest at work …