Sunday, November 16, 2008

I want mine...

There is a new trend... in the news, around the house, even over dinner with friends... with massive amounts of federal money flowing in the name of the economic bail out, everyone is wondering about how they get their share? In some circles this may have always been a topic of conversation, but not so much in the circles I run in. This is new!

It might help if I described my friends and family; they are hard working - no excuse types of people. They pay their taxes, they manage their money, they don't whine (much), they are democrats and republicans, all sexes and orientations, and of many races... in other words I mingle with a healthy cross section of the U.S. population. I believe the people I associate with are a good representation of the hard working core of middle class America.

In our conversations we talk about the rich fat cats that are getting bailed out, we talk about the misinformed consumer (very gentle moniker) who overestimated their ability to pay for homes that were much too expensive, and we talk about the greedy middle men who set these deals up. But we have also talked about people who were relocated to an expensive area to keep a job, or entrepreneurs who took a risk in this greed fueled feeding frenzy to make a business work, and how their loss is our loss.

There is never a consensus about what steps Governments (lets bring our global partners into this, they are equally responsible) or individuals should take in the coming years, the economic crisis has put the personal interests of the very people who make the Government work at odds with the Government itself.

At the end of the conversation, one thing is always clear... we hate the idea that this crisis is going to be resolved at the expense of the people who were careful to make good choices and manage their lives according to their means. We don't like the idea that many greedy, irresponsible people are going to wind up with our tax dollars in their pockets. I just pray that we all have temperance to guide us in the coming years, because what ever happens we are not going to like the end result.

There is no "fair solution"; this crisis was brought about by greedy people taking advantage of ill informed people and the Government not enforcing the regulations. And as for my friends, we are not blameless, we sat and watched while our the cocoons we fought to build for ourselves were hijacked by greed and sloth.



Sunday, November 09, 2008

Quote

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, 
you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The campaign is over... Finally...

Even though we all must get used to having to watch regular television, drive the streets without campaign slogans, and in general re-engaging with our loved ones, none have it worse than the hard core Obama fans.  Check out this video from "the Onion"


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are