Monday, March 16, 2009
Bronchitis
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Semiahmoo
Friday, March 13, 2009
Crisis Averted
It is also fun dealing with IBS on an hour and a half commute. UG.
TMI? Get over it. :)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Excuses
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I enjoyed this article. You may or may not.
OK, NOW the Sky is Falling.
In September of last year when Lehman Brothers filed for what was then the biggest bankruptcy in the United States, the Dow dropped a whopping 504 points.
On that same day in September, Senator John McCain lost the 2008 Election with these words: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."
One can argue all day about how the Republicans are responsible and how Obama inherited a bad economy, but the facts are neither Republican or Democrat.
When Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid announced in 2006 that they were going to fix the "Bush economy" the "Bush economy" had enjoyed more than 55 months of steady growth.
When the new Congress was seated, the Dow was celebrating the recovery of all its losses since 9/11, closing above 11,000 for the first time since. This isn't partisan stuff, this is history.
In January, 2006, George Bush was a lame-duck president presiding over a Congress dominated by the other party. It was after Pelosi/Reid seized the majority and started fixing the Bush economy that it began to roll over, not before.
It doesn't matter what political party one belongs to, the history is still the same.
If there was a first domino that set all the rest of them in motion, it was pushed over after control of the Congress was handed to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Assessment:
The Democrats began running for president long before they had a candidate, and they said from the beginning that their strategy was to focus on the 'Bush' economy -- which, as noted, was up to that time in pretty good shape.
Here's the thing to understand about the US economy. It isn't a 'thing'. It isn't a person. It is you and me. It rises or falls depending on how much confidence we have in it.
If I don't think my money is going to be safe if I leave it in the stock market, then logically, I am going to take it out and put it somewhere less risky.
So if somebody I admire and trust (like my Congressional leaders) tell me that the market is about to tank, and someone I've grown to despise and distrust (Evil Bush) says the market is safe, I have two reasons to pull my money out.
Multiply me times all the Evil Bush-haters that both feared for their wealth and enjoyed making Bush look bad who pulled out of the market and you have the beginnings of a recession.
After awhile, even those less enamored of Pelosi/Reid and less distrustful of Evil Bush are going to worry about their 401ks and rethink their exposure on the stock market. Which makes the numbers shakier and a recession more likely.
The Left campaigns mainly on handouts to the poor and taxes on the 'rich'. Let's define 'rich' and 'poor' as is applied in political theory.
'Rich' means white, middle-aged working professional couples, with no kids still at home.
(To the taxman, grandparents backed by a lifetime of investments and purchases are 'rich', even if they earn no more than a working couple just starting out.)
By our mid-50's we're as professional as we're gonna get, and we're making about as much as we can ever hope to, which we are trying our best to make stretch into our retirement.
'Poor' means single-parent families on food stamps, young parents still learning their skills earning entry-level salaries, and two-parent unskilled working couples with children.
There are more poor people who want handouts than there are 'rich' who want to fund them, the more the Left can demonize the 'rich' the more votes they can get from the poor.
That is not partisan politics. It is accepted political theory as was applied in recent political history.
When the 'rich' realized that the next likely president was going to be an ardent socialist, the 'rich' started yanking their retirement funds out of the stock market and steering them into what they hoped were safer investment vehicles.
All through the presidential campaign season, the market unravelled as nervous investors pulled out enough money to expose the crooks in the system. In August, Barack Hussein Obama secured the nomination for president.
In September, the unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in 5 years. As Obama began to outline his economic plans, more and more investors fled the market. By mid-October, it was going into free-fall.
On the day Obama was elected, the market had fallen from its peak of 11,000 when the Dems took over Congress to just over 9,000. By Inauguration Day, it had fallen to 8,000.
It has fallen by 1,400 points per week for every week Obama has been in office. If it continues to fall at the current rate it will be at zero before the end of April.
What is curious about this is the fact that Obama continues to talk down the economy, knowing the effect his words are having. If the President STILL says your retirement money isn't safe in the market, what do you do? And what effect does that have on the market?
So, WHY is he still slamming the economy?
Obama, or his advisors, know the history of American recessions and how Americans get out of them. Or deeper into them. Higher taxes and increased government spending have the same effect on a national economy as compensating for a pay cut by spending more on your credit cards.
What is the end game? Rahm Emmanuel explained it over the weekend on TV. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."
Especially a crisis that was more than two years in the making. It's already paid off, big time, so why rein things in now?
Things are just starting to go their way.
Weirdness
I woke up this morning with this "Yes" song in my head, "Shoot High, Aim Low". I downloaded it a few years ago but haven't really listened to it since college. I have no idea what brought it into my head, I don't recall thinking about it, but maybe some memory was sparked. It is a good song, but an obscure one that you don't hear often; not in stores or on TV or anything. I woke up singing it and I knew the lyrics, which is bizarre because not only do I never remember lyrics even to my favorite songs, but I also never knew the lyrics to this one at all. BIZARRE. So, I burned my copy to CD and listened to it in the car on my commute in. The lyrics are weird.
We hit the blue fieldsIn the blue sedan we didn't get much further
Just as the sun was rising in the mist
We were all alone we didn't need much more
So fast this expedition
So vast this heavy load
With a touch of luck and a sense of need
Seeing the guns and their faces
We look around the open shore
Waiting for something
Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low
This was to be our last ride
With the steel guitar and the love you give me
Underneath the skin a feeling, a breakdown
Well we sat for hours on the crimson sand
Exchanges in the currency of humans bought and sold
And the leaders seem to lose control
Shall we lose ourselves for a reason
Shall we burn ourselves for the answer
Have we found the place that we're looking for
Someone shouted "open the door"
Lookout
Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Feeling of imagination
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low
Shoot high aim low
Nothing you can say
Shoot high let go
Takes me by surprise
Shoot high aim low
Who says's there's got to be a reason
Shoot high let go
Who says there's got to be an answer
We were all alone, we didn't need much more
Shoot high aim low
The sun's so hard on this endless highway
Shoot high let go
Shoot high aim low
I've heard the singers, who sing of love
Shoot high let go
In the blue sedan we never got much further
Shoot high aim low
Monday, March 09, 2009
America is collapsing, my friends.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
What is the point?
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Feast 3
Friday, March 06, 2009
Not so deep.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Applebee's
I wanted to stick sharp things into my eyeballs at work today, but I am getting the hang of things.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Walk from the parking garage.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
New Job Loneliness
I'm still feeling out of place, but that will just take time, I guess. You know how you feel when you are missing someone? That is the best way to describe how I feel. A little lonely, a little displaced. My other jobs afforded me comfort in that I hit the ground running on the first day, but that was a rare luxury I now know. What I am doing here is not that difficult in the grand scheme of things, but I do have some challenges ahead of me for producing change when people don't know me. I am much more tired at the end of my days here, that's for sure.
My personal life? I'm still battling the same demons, they never seem to get tired, but I'm pushing through the best I can. I've had to let go of someone recently, and it hasn't been easy. Not everyone is appointed to stay in your life, sometimes their presence is only for a season, for whatever reason. In this case, I think it was a combination of a lesson, a distraction, and an awakening.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Distractions Help
I'm going to have a busy week at work reading procedures and learning the ropes. My boss is out of town, so it will be extra difficult. I actually brought in some personal items for my desk today, which was a feat with the hike I have to do. (Have I complained about that enough yet?) I still need flowers or a plant or something. I also forgot my lunch today, so I get to go wandering around Seattle today looking for food. Maybe I'll take a pic or two. I am so completely out of my comfort zone that it is a little amusing.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Office project, complete.
The next step is picking out colors and painting, then designing a desk/bookshelf to build because the one I have is garbage. One thing at a time.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday Morning Fun
I'm not a groomer.
Well, I survived the first 3 days of my new job. It has been a big change for me, and all the walking has made my butt and hips sore. Shutty. I know.
I apparently woke up yelling "Get out!" LOL.
I think I've lost the ability to blog in any sort of organized fashion.