With permission, I share this greeting from a dear and wise friend:
Even though I have years of experience of doing without, I can’t fit my mind comfortably into the discussions about what happens next with the economy, but I expect that more folks will find the benefits of group living to outweigh the pleasures of privacy. And I damn the architects of this doom. One final (if we’re lucky it will be the final one) earthquake in 8 years of dramatic shock economics to top off 30 years of the undermining of the middle class. For a real bump in the road, just wait until Israel attacks Iran…. All this is why I try to stay away from listening overmuch to the news. I am helpless to change anything and resent giving over my scant supply of balance and what passes for optimism to the voices of current events.
Good Morning, and blessings.
Selah, and please pass them forward.
A tumblerful of Gentleman Jack, with about 3 ice cubes, and a spacious back porch facing feeders for God’s little feathered miracles, will cure those kinds of feelings.
Wishing Peace and blessings to everyone this morning. – DLM
All together now: Kumbayaaa….kumbayaaaaa……
Divided we fall, united we stand, ……
Come on people now, smile on your brother (and sister), everybody get together, try to love one another, right now…..
Ben your head is clearly screwed on straight. I agree completely. Another thought might be to avoid the negative stimulus. Shoot the TV set, computer. Volunteer to deliver meals on wheels or to clean kennels at the animal shelter. Swim laps. Try TM.
“And I damn the architects of this doom.” Dear old wise friend of lotos I am sorry you don’t feel well but I bet if you quit damning other people you’ll feel better.
FDR said “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” It’s considered one of FDR’s greatest moments. If W said that, he’d be called an out-of-touch moron.
Economies expand and contract, bubbles rise and bubbles burst. This is not the asinine scenario from the movie Rollover.
The “toxic” financial packages which contain failing sub-prime mortgages still have some value — there are hard assets in those packages. The sky is NOT falling.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phillippians 4:6-7
OK … I’m backing off on the Gentleman Jack: I’m almost beginning to agree with Observer…. Cheers, Mate.
Actually, Observer, if W had said something on those lines in the first 18 months after 9/11, he’d have been taken seriously. You’re forgetting the period when he had a the country’s attention as solidly as any president has had.
One thing to remember in all of this mess — one man’s misfortune is often another’s gain. It is in times like these that fortunes are lost, and fortunes are gained —it depends on how you are positioned when these type of events occur. For example, if you are in position to take advantage of the favorable housing buying opportunities right now, including building a house, you would be making a wise investment. Ditto with respect to certain company stocks whose price has decreased due to uncertainty and fear, but whose assets and financial strength have not really changed –there are some very good buys out there right now. Ditto with respect to other types of investments whose value has increased due to recent events.
As for me? While my conservatism keeps me positioned in such a way that I am not as affected by such events as others, my timing has never been good to “take advantage” of these types of events. I started building a new house not too long after Katrina and while the housing boom was still peaking (translated: paid higher costs than otherwise could have had I waited until now —but, who knew for certain this would happen?). IF I only had me one of those accurate crystal balls,…………
Bad timing has been the story of my life. LOL. That Dr. John song (Right place, wrong time) could have been written about me.
I am not sure this vulture observation of mine actually helps anyone this Sat. morning, but I always try to look at the silver linings along with the clouds.
As someone who did not vote for Bush, would not vote for Bush and can sometimes get very angry at anyone who did vote for Bush; I wholeheartedly agree with NMC 7. Along with the rest of this country, I was desparately looking to W after 9/11 to right this ship. He did have our attention but then he went and squandered it.
The United States is about to fall apart. Why? What is the basic reason for this? The immediate reason is that “assets” used and leveraged many times over to provide for a (a) consumer economy and a (b) financial economy based on usury, interest payments for the use of money to fund consumption have lost worth.
The main basis for the economy is failing. Everything will seemingly come to an end.
We have had governments intent on satisfying the pleasures sought by consumers and financiers. Everyone has gone on a binge. The binge was justified by the confusion of liberty with desire for consumption based on borrowed funds. Now we are about to pay the price.
The parties of no government are coming forward with plans for lots of government. In the next few weeks the United States Government will commence transfer payments from current taxpayers and future generations of taxpayers to bail out one side of the economic equation of consumers and financiers — transfer payments to the financiers.
Our leaders have defaulted on the taxpayers. They have proven themselves to be without honor, courage, and consistancy. We have been sold a bill of goods, and now we reap a bill of wrongs.
We need a slogan for this new brand of socialism that has enveloped us all. How about this:
From each who has the most need.
To each who had the most greed.
NMC @ 7 and GG @ 9, I know that you will never, ever agree, but Bush should get credit for there not being another attack in the US since 9/11. Like it or not, the Iraq incursion by US forces created a “heat sink” for terrorists, and they were drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame. Bin Laden and others said Iraq was the central theater in the fight against the US, and they’ve lost the fight there.
A democracy is rising slowly in Iraq. It will be the first in the Muslim Middle East. Harry Truman left office as a very despised man, but now he is considered a courageous leader. Bush has never courted the favor of the “polls” but he has done what he thought would protect the country. Fifty years from now, if a viable democracy remains in Iraq, Bush will be considered as another courageous President.
Oh second thought, no, he won’t. Because Liberal dingbats write the history books. I actually heard a college professor blame the past weeks’ financial problems on Ronald Reagan, and he left office 20 years ago.
I once heard a college professor say that Reagan pushed the biggest, most focused effort ever at deregulation government-wide, including the financial industry, especially for savings & loans to act like banks. (S&L crisis didn’t take long.) Imagine that.
Then Bush picked up the sword did Reagan one better. He took people who hated the regulatory agencies and sued and lobbied against them and……put them in charge of the agencies.
Observer 12:
I agree to an extent (gasp-earth trembles). While Bush’s decision to invade Iraq was not based on ridding the world of al- Qaida, they were in Afghanistan, the “heat sink” or “flypaper theory” did occur and, as a result, it would appear al-Quaida has been crippled.
That Bush deserves credit for no further attacks on the U.S. at home- it’s hard to prove or disprove a negative but I am willing to cede that he may have played a role. But (you hadda know there’d be a “but”), to kill Americans they didn’t have to come here-we sent Americans to their doorstep. And now the occupation serves as a tremendous ongoing propaganda, recruiting, and training opportunity for jihadists, putting us at greater risk over the longer term.
Now, about those *liberal dingbats writing history*, aren’t there any right-wing dingbats with their own pen & paper?
One more “but”- *Bush has never courted the favor of the "polls" but he has done what he thought would protect the country*… on this, you and I stand on opposite sides of a pretty large chasm.
Maybe we just oughta dust off our copies of “Who Moved My Cheese?” Went over REALLY well with hourly folks back in the good ole nineties.
Then again, there’s still some cheese left, right?
Oh hell … pass the Gentleman Jack….
I’ll get the Dobage cake and the pitcher of Cosmos. Can’t afford the Saint Andre cheese if I could still find it.