International Paper(IP) -- Best-of-breed paper company with a 9.3% yield, but $11 billion in debt that has been endlessly piled on. How can that yield be sustainable?

Tyson Foods (TSN) -- We know that prices for grain are way down. Grain is the principal cost of this company. But it has $2.8 billion in long-term debt and that's just too much to make it attractive.

Newell-Rubbermaid(NWL) -- This once-great company's got a yield of 9.7%. How much do I want that? But how much do I want that $2.2 billion in debt on the balance sheet? Like a hole in the head!

Legg Mason(LM) -- With its 5.3% yield and a brand name that must still hold some cachet, you would like to snap it up until you realize that the company's got about $3 billion in long-term debt. How can that company compete with T. Rowe Price (TROW), which has no debt?

Legg Mason(LM) -- With its 5.3% yield and a brand name that must still hold some cachet, you would like to snap it up until you realize that the company's got about $3 billion in long-term debt. How can that company compete with T. Rowe Price (TROW), which has no debt?

Leggett & Platt (LEG) -- This company has a 7.7% yield but almost a billion dollars in debt. I like this high-quality bedding and furniture company, but how do I know that it can handle that debt-load through the trough.

Same with Masco(MAS), a similarly high-yield-and-massive-debt company.

Obvious examples abound everywhere: New York Times(NYT), Sara Lee(SLE), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), RF Micro Devices (RFMD) (among so many techs with so much debt), VeriSign(VRSN), Weatherford(WFT) (along with a lot of oil service companies with debt) and most of the restaurant chains, big and small.