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(same shit, different day)

Nobody volunteered to help me with my coup d'etat. Pussies. (I guess now I'll have to get started on that clone army.) ;-)

I like using bad words now because the Odiogo podcast voice is so serious and proper. It makes me laugh.

I wasn't joking about my blood pressure being very high. It really was, and the other day I thought I might be about to die so I went to the doctor. The medicine he gave me has dropped it back to its normal level, but the huge change has caused some weird things too. It's a bit of a physical mystery because all my other tests and things are fine and normal so far. Of course, like most Americans I need to lose some weight, but it is actually lower than a year ago so it doesn't seem like the culprit. Can I please go through 6 months without some big illness or other trouble? That's not too much to ask, is it?

I worry that my husband is going to trade me in for a younger, healthier model. He seems to be annoyed and inconvenienced by all my problems. Well, I can't say I blame him. I'm pretty annoyed too. Sorry, all these things just happen. It's not like I have any control over people dying and all these other things. It's exhausting for all of us. But the last thing I need right now is to feel resented and defective...

Okay, is that pitiful enough? ;-)

My Business Plan For GM

Despite my evil ranting sometimes, I really can be pretty generous with nice things too. ;-)

Here's my free advice to GM, if only they would listen.

1. Do away with Buick. Seriously. Anything that sounds like vomiting is a bad idea. If the old people want "luxury" let them buy a Cadillac.

2. Do away with GMC. All of those cars are just the same as Chevys with different skin. Wasteful repetition.

3. Do away with Hummer. They were just a fad, a passing fancy, mostly for guys who were trying to compensate for lacking something.

4. Do away with Saab. Boring. Nothing special.

5. Do away with Pontiac. This is a little painful for me since I grew up in Pontiacs, and I still have my first car, a 1978 Firebird. But Pontiac has pretty much become more redundancy and nothing very exciting.

6. Keep Cadillac. There will always be some market for luxury, even in a bad economy. Hey, I'd buy an Escalade if I wanted to take on making car payments again, but my car is paid for and that's too good to change right now.

7. Keep Corvette. This is a no-brainer, but they really need to improve their marketing for it. These are consistently highly rated and good performers. But they are also pretty good with fuel mileage. GM should emphasize this fact. Advertise that getting good mileage will never look or feel better, or something like that. Mine can get 30 mpg on long trips and between 22-24 in the 'city', depending on how I drive. ;-)

8. Keep Saturn. Give it a chance. I'm not too familiar with them except the Sky, which is stunningly cute. The other Saturns I've seen on the road don't look so bad.

9. And of course, keep Chevrolet, at least most of them. Maybe eliminate the duds that just haven't moved. And keep the planned 2010 Camaro reintroduction. There is a nostalgia market for that.

Eliminating so many lines will of course result in lots of lay-offs, but that's just the way it will have to be. There is no market for so many cars and it just can't be sustainable for all those people to keep getting paid to make what isn't wanted or needed. As I suggested previously, if the UAW thinks it is so indispensable then let them buy out some of the lines that GM needs to shed.

Obviously, I don't like these bailouts in the guise of "loans" to companies that haven't operated profitably for a long time because of their own bad decisions and poor planning. I do feel a little sorry for the actual factory workers who will lose their jobs, but then again, how bad can you feel for people who have pretty much been babied and coddled in a world that isn't realistic? I've toured the Corvette assembly plant, and some of those people are paid $30+ an hour plus excessive benefits for steering a machine that tightens some nuts and bolts and that's about it.

Maybe the workers should file some class action lawsuits against their stupid bosses? That would be better than demanding money from the government.

Times are tough for all of us. But it can get better if everyone gets their heads out of their asses and accepts that they will have to adapt and adjust instead of expecting everything to always stay the same.

Declaration of Independence Today

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,

it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

I'm just about insane enough now to actually do something about the abject condition of our current government. I shouldn't admit this publicly, but I'm not a coward and I am ready abolish this system which has ignored the governed and disregarded our consent and protests and has reduced us to absolute despotism. We have suffered enough and it is our right and duty to throw off this government.

Ours are not "light and transient causes" and if one needs to list "a long train of abuses and usurpations" all it takes is to read the headlines of the last few months.

I'm serious. And I'm asking for help from anyone who is brave enough to stand up for our rights.

And if they come to arrest me for conspiracy and sedition, well, that's fine too because my blood pressure is about 180/110 these days and it would be okay to get some "free" medical treatment. My own personal bailout, if you will. ;-) But that is highly unlikely anyway since the likes of William Ayers can become a media star from being an actual unrepentant terrorist. I'm only talking about it.

Wake Me Up When December Ends

Sorry that I seem to have lost my sense of humor lately. It's been such a tough year and everything is worn out from it. While the holiday season is supposed to be joyful and fun, the pressure to be joyful and fun can kill what little joy and fun that tries to emerge. This morning I woke up with a horrible, splitting headache as well as an irritable bladder, which means pain though usually not from a UTI. Often it is stress induced.

One good thing today was that the Titans won again, beating the Cleveland Browns.

It has been unusually cold here for a while, and today the temperature never got above freezing at our house. Manmade global warming/climate change my ass. We have roughly 30 year cycles of warming and cooling.

It sounds like they are going to give the auto companies billions more dollars. Well, I was thinking yesterday about all these economic "theories" that the "experts" are trying to make work in reality. Sorry, but it just doesn't look like any of them are working so well. Why is it that some people are so attached to theory and their own expectations and demands of how reality should work? Theories are fine and great sometimes, but too many people can't accept when reality does not agree with their own ideas. This is true in economics and "climate science." Neither one is really accurately predicting and describing reality. Enough with it already. And stop trying to make reality fit the theory. Change the fucking theories instead. Again, this year's Economics Nobelist comes to mind. He apparently won for his ideas about the US auto industry. Isn't it ironic that this very industry is collapsing this year too? Well, it just doesn't look so good for the Nobel people when they give awards to stupid people whose theories are failing in real time.

We were watching some shows on the science channel last night and one did make me laugh. They don't have the video up on their website yet. Too bad. Anyway, this guy has made a roach driven robot, yes, seriously it is driven by a roach bug. Actually, it is pretty cool, but somehow it just cracks me up that someone's life has been devoted to such a project. Imagine how it would sound to a girl who meets him and asks what kind of work he does. Or imagine how a girl might tell her friends what her boyfriend/husband's work is. It would be a funny thing on The Big Bang Theory, I think. There are many women in the world who would never be able to appreciate a man whose life work is building bug-driven robots. Likewise, there are also many women in the world who could never appriate a man who lives only in the theoretical. I'm not placing judgment on these things, just noting that they usually aren't as important to the functioning world as the guys who are doing them think they are (or should be). It's just a fact of life that most people don't care about theories so much. They only care about what actually works. And the cold, harsh truth is that real life and reality are much, much more difficult, challenging, and unstable that some "elegant" and comfortable theory in someone's head.

I didn't really mean to go off on that tangent, but whatever. I'm just trying to make it through the day and the rest of this month and year. If I could go to bed and sleep through it I would.

Truth In Advertising

Healthcare: The Next Bursting Bubble

I am certain that the US economy is already in the beginning of a depression and not just a recession. Not that I'm saying we will see the same horrible life as in the Great Depression, but relatively speaking what is going on now is quite serious and is not going to improve for quite some time. As all the "experts" are saying, it will likely get worse before it gets better. That is about the only thing they're saying that I do agree with. (forgive my laziness about ending sentences with "with")

The intelligence of our "leaders" seems to have declined considerably in the last few decades. Maybe it is because of the birth control pill? Messing with Nature usually doesn't end well, but maybe no one ever reads Frankenstein anymore? Anyway, the whole lot of them* are total idiots, regardless of whatever degrees and so-called education they've had. Well, look at it this way. How intelligent is it to continue doing the things that consistently fail? That's exactly what they do.

Incidentally, and this is just my own insecurity and need for validation, whether it comes extrinsically or intrinsically, I have evidence that I really am smarter than about 95% of my peers. It's not an "IQ" score, but there are some other standardized test results that consistently place me in about the 95th percentile. If you don't believe me I can scan and post them, godddammit. So all the dumbfucks who try to call me stupid are only being dumbfucks. Okay? Thank you. I just had to get that out of my system. *sigh* :-)

Now back to the economy. And healthcare specifically. While everyone is hand-wringing over the mortgage meltdown that is the result of lots of people being really stupid and making really bad decisions, there is another bubble that will burst soon enough. Too many people are expecting the government to pay for their healthcare. But what they don't realize is that it is completely unrealistic and will be disastrous when/if that happens. Some people seem to think that free healthcare is a basic human right, but you know, nothing is really free, although recently it looks like 95% of the people have forgotten that, if they ever knew it in the first place.

Sure, access to healthcare is a "right" but how can anyone really think that any vital service can be free of cost? Someone has to pay for it, and until recently it wasn't common practice for the government to just make up billions of dollars to pay for every little thing that people asked for.

There are some ways to make the healthcare system more "fair" and accessible to everyone, but they require some big, serious changes to the way that business has been done for the last few decades. Just like the auto industry. Nothing will improve until they drastically adjust their way of doing business. Sometimes successful evolution takes really big steps.

Well, let me ask some questions. Who is really making the most money from the healthcare system today without actually doing much? The doctors? Not really, though most do make plenty enough, they do work for it usually. The drug companies? Meh, they make a lot but they also contribute a lot with their research and development, as well as advertising that helps pay for our entertainment. The hospitals? Some make money and some lose money but they are vital to the system. What does that leave? Ah, yeah, the insurance companies. What do they really do anyway? They are just an extra, very costly and very profitable, step in the process of delivering healthcare. They are not really vital. Basically they are middlemen who get paid to negotiate between the medical services and the patients. Why can't the patients deal directly with the medical services themselves? Cut out the fat, the wastefulness, the unnecessary.

Anyone who promotes a "universal healthcare" that trusts those same insurance companies to administer it efficiently is a total idiot, or at least seriously deluded. Although the government isn't exactly good at efficient administration of services it would be preferable to make the medical service providers actual government employees instead of keeping a wasteful third party in the system. Make it more like the military if necessary, where the doctors are enlisted and trained by the government and rise through the ranks according to ability and accomplishment. Yeah, maybe this is a radical idea, but it has got to be better than what all the other dummies are suggesting. I'm just saying let's look at this thing from a new perspective instead of always trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

No, there are no perfect plans or ideas for solving the big, serious issues that our country is facing now. But come on, let's stop it with thinking that throwing money at ill-designed and poorly functioning things is actually going to change anything for the better. It won't. It never has. And it never will. Why is it so hard for people to understand this simple fact? I really don't believe it is so difficult that one has to be in the 95th percentile to get it.


*correction: My own Tennessee Senator Bob Corker was just giving hell to the stupid auto bosses, thank God. I guess he's one in the top 5%. ;-)

I Know My Candybars

The only one I missed was a Mars bar because it has been many, many years since I've eaten one of those.

Took Seven Minutes

I named 50 US states in 10 minutes

I'm a little slow.

Stuck in the Middle (Age)

I guess it's to be expected to see a bunch of old people shopping at JCPenny's on a Tuesday mid-morning. And maybe that's why I was there too. ;-) Well, I figured it was safer to go with the old people than later in the day since there have been at least three shootings at the mall in the last year, most in the afternoon or evening. Anyway, old people, bless their hearts I hope I live long enough to be as old, are so slow when they are paying for things. I shouldn't complain. What's my rush? Maybe they are just as lost in this world of expanding technology as I am finding myself.

It's like I'm stuck in the middle between these old people who barely get around and hardly know how to use a debit card and the younger people who are constantly texting friends on their high-tech phones while negotiating all sorts of other gadgets and whatnot that are intimidating to me. While my cell phone can receive text messages, and all I get are spams, my service does not include allowing me to send text messages. I could add that option, but not that it really matters because it seems like texting is mostly for people who need to sneak around about their communications. Okay, not really, but isn't it easier just to call?

One of my reasons for shopping was looking for a cute phone for my daughter to put in her room so she could answer her own calls. Not a cell phone, but a nice old-fashioned land-line phone. There were none to be found. Anywhere. Not cute ones anyway. Man, I'm getting old and behind the times. See, where we live cell phone service is still kind of iffy sometimes, so I don't think it's a good idea to eliminate the land-line like many urban/suburban people are doing. Besides, in some circumstances a land-line is more reliable and possibly more secure (though I don't really know about that for sure.) I ended up buying a plain phone and will just "bling" it up with some rhinestone stickers.

Then I went to Hot Topic because my kids are at the age of liking that kind of stuff. The music was too loud and there was way too much stuff. Sensory overload for a middle-aged momma, so I had to ask the nice young guy working there to help me find things. Pathetic.

Just in the last couple of weeks I've been fretting over getting older and all the things that go with it. It sucks! I'll never be the cute little 20 year old or even 30 year old I used to be. And what really sucks is that I didn't even really know I was cute then and therefore didn't actually enjoy it as much as I now know I should have. Yeah, it's a mid-life crisis thing. We get to an age when we regret our stupidity and wasted youth. If only we knew then what we know now. These cliches are hard and real. I can't even look at myself in the mirror sometimes. Who is that fat old lady I see?

I have to admit that I offered God a deal after my mom died nearly 12 years ago. I told him that I would accept whatever aging brought me as long as I got to live much longer than she did. And then after my dad died earlier this year I realized that I've certainly been paying on my deal already and wondered how much more I owed. Mom died shortly after her 54th birthday. Daddy died a few months before his 71st birthday. Both died about 10 years after their appendices blew. Averaging their ages at death is 62.5. Adding ten years to my approximate age when my appendix blew is 50. Those numbers probably don't mean anything, but when you're feeling old already they don't look so good.

Sorry if this is a downer. Maybe next time I go shopping I'll be adventurous and go at night. ;-)

Snow Today

This heavy snow shower is already gone now, but we will probably have more later. It's so pretty and watching it snow always makes me hum "Winter Wonderland."

Medicare Bailout

Watch this video and look carefully at the featured woman, "Carolyn," who complains about Medicare putting some limits on how much they pay for her medical treatments for an "immune system deficiency."




Perhaps it is only my astute eye that can see that she has had her face injected with lots of Botox. If you will notice, there is no movement in her forehead, upper lip, or around her eyes. If you've been living under a rock for many years and don't know what Botox is, you should look it up. While it does have some valid medical applications, it is mostly used to prop up the vanity of aging people who cannot accept that their skin naturally develops wrinkles from repetitive movements of the underlying muscles.

Sure, this is a free country and people have the "right" to subject themselves to any sort of poisonous treatments for whatever they think ails them. But I should not have to help them pay for it. If they want their faces paralyzed to smooth their wrinkles then they should pay for it themselves. But they should pay for more serious and essential needs first.

Sorry, but I have no sympathy for this Carolyn who complains about not being able to pay for "life saving" treatments for some undefined "immune disorder" while she has obviously had the money to pay for lots of cosmetic Botox treatments (as well as hair colors and who knows what other vanity expenses). And I suspect that this "immune system deficiency" is probably related to having one of the most deadly poisons in the world injected into her face (and maybe also related to having silicone balloons implanted in her chest). Duh! It looks like obvious common sense that the immune system would respond, sometimes violently, to the introduction of toxic foreign substances. I mean, really, how dumb can people, doctors included, be??

I hate being expected to always bail out all of these stupid, selfish idiots who should be allowed to suffer the consequences of their bad choices. It's not just this super-vain, selfish Carolyn, but also all the big banks and auto makers and other irresponsible slugs who are useless parasites on the working parts of society.

As for Medicare and if old people are happy with it, it would be better and more fair to ask some of those really pitiful people who are stuck in hospital beds or depending on walkers to get around. I bet they aren't complaining about Medicare. And I bet they didn't waste all their money on Botox and other cosmetic treatments.

When I first saw this story on Brit Hume's show I was shocked and disappointed that the producers would be so dumb as to pick that Carolyn as an example of Medicare "unfairness." Jesus, who approved it? He or she should be fired or at least strongly reprimanded. And if it was Hume himself, man, I would have expected much better.

My own personal experience with the Medicare system has been fine. When my dad was sick and in and out of the hospital and having all kinds of tests and treatments his Medicare and Medicare supplemental insurance covered practically everything. Most older people do buy Medicare supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare doesn't. I have no reason to believe that my dad's situation was any different from most. There were no Medicare refusals or disputes of coverage for his many tests, treatments, and hospitalizations. Maybe that was because his illness was real and not some dubious, narcissistic "immune" problem.

Well, maybe I sound harsh and mean. Too bad. As far as "Carolyn" is concerned I think the only "immoral" thing going on is that she is expecting everyone else to a pay for her own idiocy.

Thanksgiving

Sorry to say, but this year Thanksgiving isn't really so happy. Although I've tried very hard to focus on all the good things and blessings in our lives, all the losses and struggles of the last year are so much in the foreground that there is no ignoring or avoiding them. This is my first Thanksgiving with no living parent. No more going to Dad's house for the family gathering. It is a big change.

I am thankful for not being so poor (yet) that we have to kill and eat squirrels to survive. I am thankful that my children are healthy and normal. I am thankful that we have made smart choices that have insulated us to some degree from the "financial crisis" that seems to be fueled by never-ending stupidity. (Hey, why can't someone create a new "biofuel" from that never-ending supply of stupidity?)

I am thankful that my own health is much better than one year ago, despite having to deal with so much drama and stress.

Well, there is a lot of cooking and preparing to do today. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the India terrorist attacks. And my hopes and wishes are for all of us to take a moment to be thankful, even if not exactly happy, for our lives, families, friends, and other goodness in our lives.

First Grade Report Card

(click to enlarge)





I like the little stick figure drawings that show the "deportment" progress. It's funny that I did not do so well at working quietly and finishing my work because those are the exact same problems that my sons have had in their beginning grades. My daughter has not had those same problems. And the reading grades are the lowest, probably because I had some unidentified "learning disability" or other condition that is nowadays labeled and widely accepted as a reason for slower reading progress.

It's funny that the height and weight are included. Such things are now considered politically incorrect and damaging to children's self esteem. ;-)

Also on the front and back are some interesting notes about development and the purpose of school.

"A child should be encouraged to face reality."

"A sense of humor is necessary for a good personality."

"We believe that schools should prepare a child to live in a democracy."

I certainly don't see these things spelled out on my kids' modern report cards, and it is unfortunate that such practical and common sense has been abandoned by the educators, who are too worried about hurting self-esteem and other sociopolitical correctnesses, to really understand about healthy development and to instruct children how to grow into good citizens.

Typealyzer Blog Personality

via Backreaction

Typealyzer says it can guess the personality of a text, or communication style, but does note that "writing style on a blog may have little or nothing to do with a person´s self-percieved personality." According to their calculations I'm a Hoe (as well as all of my other blogs - public and private) is this:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.



The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like [to] seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Analysis

This show what parts of the brain that were dominant during writing.



Add to that the gender analysis of this blog from GenderAnalyzer that says:

We think http://viciousmomma.blogspot.com is written by a man (87%).

And it appears that by some kind of "statistical analyses" I should be a male, but I am most definitely a woman, at least my body that produced three children is female. :-)

I suppose that despite being a "vicious momma" my being a "hoe" which is a type of tool does fit the mechanic theme. And since most mechanics are males that use tools then these results make some kind of sense.

Being labeled as a Mechanic might also be related to my fixing things. And the description about liking adventure and fast cars fits well too. Though I've never had any desire to be a cop or fireman I do sometimes fantasize about being a super-hero vigilante. ;-) That goes along with the problem solving combined with the liking action and adventure, don't you think?

But in other personality tests I've been INFJ or "Counselor" type. Maybe in my writing I am much more analytical while in my in-person relations I am much more empathetic and "fuzzy". ;-) However, I can see some congruity of these different personality results. Probably the same active problem-solving tendency occurs whether I'm dealing with things or people.

Titans Lose One

Yesterday, the TN Titans were defeated by Brett Favre and the NY Jets with a score of 34-13. Well, as many people were saying for the last few weeks, it was inevitable and probably necessary. Of course, we can't will them all, and sometimes we have to lose in order to regain our competitive spirit. I hope that the Titans will take this loss as a motivation to come back stronger for the last games of the season.

Titans Still Undefeated

Despite all the nay-sayers and others who are so reluctant to give respect and credit where it is due, the Tennessee Titans remain undefeated with 10 consecutive wins this season. They are the only currently undefeated team in the NFL. At the beginning of the season when Kerry Collins replaced the injured starting quarterback Vince Young, I heard some announcers describing Collins as "an old throw-back from the 90s." Ha! I guess he's showing them!

On the flip-side, the Detroit team, much like their city's auto industry, has a perfect losing record for the season: 0 wins, 10 losses. ;-)

Slave Masters

One of the answers to the question ending the previous post - a question that no one could answer (whether they read it or not) ;-) - is of course, the labor unions, specifically UAW.

I urge anyone who wants to be truly informed about how the unions actually work, please do look at the UAW website, specifically their "auto contracts". One can see just by the "wages" of GM auto workers that the total pay and benefits for each employee is far above the national average, even though they "work" for a company that cannot really afford to pay them so much.

But the union does not seem to care that they are "bargaining" their employer to death. They don't seem to mind that they have expensed GM into bankruptcy. The union believes that GM exists solely for their own benefit. They don't understand that GM's existence and purpose is actually to produce and sell automobiles - not to employ a bunch of greedy, lazy people.

Well, I've decided that the absolute best solution for GM and UAW is to allow GM to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy and then let the UAW buy it out. If they want to keep their jobs then let them buy the company and see how well they can ru(i)n it themselves. :-)

But most definitely they should not expect any government bailouts if they continue to run GM into the ground. If they think that the GM bosses have done so badly and wrongly at operating the company, then they should be happy to take over and prove that they can do it better. Hey, if the "evil capitalists" are doing it all wrong, then maybe the "communist/unionist workers" can fix it all for themselves? But without government money! (But if there is a auto bailout at some point, I want share in the company in exchange for my tax dollars. Or at least new car. ;-) What's fair is fair.)

With my brilliant ;-) solution, GM doesn't disappear, making the country's economy collapse in its wake as all the doomsayers are predicting. GM would go on, and all those people would keep their jobs. Being the ones under pressure to assure that the company does not fail should be a strong incentive for the union workers/company owners to do it right for their own benefit.

Well, honestly, I do think I'm giving people too much benefit and credit for being responsible for themselves. But it's a good, even if overly idealistic, solution to the problem of GM's continued existence. But just like all my other great ideas, no one is really listening. ;-)

Refried Stimulus

You know, it's just getting so ridiculous now that it's hard to see straight anymore. I tried to watch Paulson's news conference today, but man, he is a terrible communicator. And honestly, I don't think he's really any better at economics. Today he confirmed what I already knew - that the TARP is a total ruse and hoax. Sorry, Henry, but the "facts" haven't changed. Only the lies you all have told us have changed.

I understand that everyone who's "important" thinks that the US auto industry is vital and indispensable so that we cannot allow it to crumble. Fine. But isn't there a better way of helping it than to give even more money to a bunch of guys who have proven that they don't know how to manage it? I mean, good Lord, that's like telling a child with a mouth full of rotten teeth to just keep on eating all that candy they want. It just makes a vicious momma feel, well, really super-vicious. ;-)

I really wish that Obama or someone would hire me as an advisor and I could really straighten their asses out about some things. Or at least, I could dispense some long-overdue spankings to all those executives that haven't been properly disciplined. Yeah, appoint me to the Cabinet. Create a new position called Spanking Czar or Tsar or whatever it is. Or Secretary of Discipline. Oh, nevermind, that won't ever happen.

Anyway, we got our letter yesterday about the "Economic Stimulus" - it came this late because we had filed for an extension and just filed our income tax return in October. Well, I figure it's like a small refund of some of the thousands of dollars we've already paid in the last few years. I guess we'll use it for Christmas and do our part to "stimulate" the economy. Maybe everything will be real cheap since all the retailers are in trouble. We'll see.

Perhaps this taking advantage of desperately low prices sounds somewhat predatory or scavenger-like. Well, just look at nature and you'll find that it's a common adaptation to pick out the weakest to consume and to scavenge those that have fallen. I guess I'm a cruel socioeconomic darwinist to look at things this way. Fine. Whatever. But it seems to me that all those guys like Paulson and the other "experts" and "executives" have completely forgotten the laws of nature and the fact that oftentimes it's best to let the weak and non-adaptive things be consumed and/or scavenged by the stronger and healthier.

Okay, what about compassion and humanity? Have I none? Of course I do. And I frankly do think that it is more compassionate and responsible to assure the future well-being of our society by allowing the failures to fail. How will we ever learn to improve if we don't ever let ourselves fail? It's just not natural to prevent failure and death of things that are incapable of living. To quote Mammy from Gone With the Wind, "It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'!" Believe it or not, Mammy has always been a kind of vicious momma role model for me:



I couldn't find a video of the "it ain't fittin'" scene, but the one above shows some of the aftermath of the Civil War. The streets of Atlanta were full of predators and scavengers (some called "carpetbaggers") who rightly (and sometimes wrongly) rebuilt the city from its ruins - all without big government bailouts for the formerly rich slave-owners or any kind of "economic parity" programs for the poor whites who didn't even own slaves but still had to suffer through the War and its consequences. Of course, all of that ingenuity and resourcefulness truly is gone with the wind, and now all we are offered is some refried stimulus borrowed from our grandchildren.

You know, the pre-Civil War cotton industry was considered vital and indispensable too, just like the auto industry today. Well, history has a way of repeating itself, especially when the same mistakes are made over again. Who do you think really is holding us as slaves to their ways today? (one hint to one answer: their names are akin to the ones who won the Civil War)

The People Spoke

And that is the American Way. Congratulations and good luck to Obama and his team. They certainly do have a big job ahead of them. I do realize the historical significance of these days and I appreciate being witness to them. Despite whatever angry things I've said during the campaign I am reserving judgment about an Obama Presidency until we see what exactly he does. He does have some pretty powerful mojo.

Incidentally, I think that Michelle Obama should hire Korto, the runner-up in Project Runway 5, to design her Inauguration gown. I always liked Korto's designs and thought that she should have won. I was impressed with her creativity and skilled construction.

Teenage Wasteland

"Baba O'Riley" by The Who

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Sally, take my hand
We'll travel south cross-land
Put out the fire
And don't look past my shoulder
The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let's get together
Before we get much older

Teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland

They're all wasted!

Of course, this song was written by a Brit, but music is universal and everyone is allowed, at least still at this moment, to interpret music and art as it makes sense to them. While some might read these lyrics as some kind of communist manifesto, I prefer to read them as a declaration of Freedom from the oppression of communistic "groupthink" and loss of individuality. After all, it is usually younger and more immature people who have never actually put their backs into their work to build a life and security of their own. They generally prefer that everything is given to them without having to actually earn it and be responsible for themselves. (If you know any teenagers you know what I mean.)

Well, America is in its Teenage Wasteland. They're all wasted! The People are wasting all the hard work and sacrifice of the Founding Fathers and others who have fought so hard for our unique Independence and Freedom and the Responsibilities that go with them. It breaks my heart and hurts my soul and stomach to witness the "Change" led by someone who believes and preaches that his people are "owed" something and that the very foundations of our Nation are "flawed."

May God or the Laws of Nature intervene to save us from our own destruction.

I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven


Bonus: