On books. I am feeling ripped off. I just read a book on identity theft written by an actual criminal who did time for the crime. It made a good story, but I have read seventh grade papers that were not as poorly written. While I have read some bad high school papers, I do not believe I have ever read one this bad. To make matters worse, it was an expensive book and a very short 188 pages. The margins were wide and the print large. I have had many students of all ages try that. Insider's Secrets To Identity Theft: What They Don't Want You To Know (Insider's Guide) by T Carter was published by www.lulu.com which is a self publishing outfit. I am now sure that I can write a book, get it published, and actually sell it because Amazon sold this one for 25.95 and with a charming review that mentioned neither its actually length or the horrible editing, I was intrigued enough to get suckered into buying it. I am feeling like an idiot, too.
I also bought Jeff Foxworthy's How to Stink at Golf. It too is short and not exactly what I was expecting, but it was cheap and will make a good gift to a golfer (if I meet one). It is, at least, funny. The third book I bought (yes, I am still worried about the economy, public and private, but books are my vice)wasUncommon Grounds: The Coffee and How it Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast. It will make up for the disappointment of the other two. This is, of course, all in the name of research. But I think I will check out my local library before I buy anymore books on these topics. Frauds can write fraudulent books and the unwitting will buy them. Jeff is just too funny and I had seen him on Glenn Beck plugging the book and was curious, so I will forgive him such a short book.
Two lessons, however, have been learned from the identity theft book. One is that identity theft is easy because people trust people too much and are generally gullible. Second, you cannot trust the reviews on Amazon.
I am now officially paranoid about everything. This is definitely a rant so I will sleep on this before posting it.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
June 10, 2008
How bad is it? From my perspective, it is pretty bad. It is bad because I am basically unemployed, because I already drive an extremely economical (paid for) car, and because after years of frugality I had finally loosened up a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) and I don’t want to cut back again. I don’t want to be poor. Now the obvious argument is get a job, but that is not an option at the moment. I need to be flexible to take care of my aunt and my granddaughter. I am still recovering my energy and I don’t know if it will ever be what it was. In fact there is a good chance it will not. At any rate, it is no where near what I would need to work and to be a caregiver. My needs are met and my gas tank is filled when I need for it to be, so what is with the feeling in my gut of impending disaster? It is the feeling that the country if spinning out of control with gas prices and this upcoming election featuring two candidates who do not have our best interests in mind. Obama is a pure Marxist. McCain is such a wild card it is hard telling what he might do. He has changed his position on some key issues like extending the tax cuts and not granting amnesty to illegal aliens. But will he really follow through once he is in office? And if he ends up with a Democrat congress will he even be able to? I fail to see how we will be able to trust or to hold accountable a man who has his whole political career prided himself on being a maverick, reaching across the aisle, and for the last seven years, repeatedly opposed President Bush.
How bad is it? From my perspective, it is pretty bad. It is bad because I am basically unemployed, because I already drive an extremely economical (paid for) car, and because after years of frugality I had finally loosened up a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) and I don’t want to cut back again. I don’t want to be poor. Now the obvious argument is get a job, but that is not an option at the moment. I need to be flexible to take care of my aunt and my granddaughter. I am still recovering my energy and I don’t know if it will ever be what it was. In fact there is a good chance it will not. At any rate, it is no where near what I would need to work and to be a caregiver. My needs are met and my gas tank is filled when I need for it to be, so what is with the feeling in my gut of impending disaster? It is the feeling that the country if spinning out of control with gas prices and this upcoming election featuring two candidates who do not have our best interests in mind. Obama is a pure Marxist. McCain is such a wild card it is hard telling what he might do. He has changed his position on some key issues like extending the tax cuts and not granting amnesty to illegal aliens. But will he really follow through once he is in office? And if he ends up with a Democrat congress will he even be able to? I fail to see how we will be able to trust or to hold accountable a man who has his whole political career prided himself on being a maverick, reaching across the aisle, and for the last seven years, repeatedly opposed President Bush.
How will young people who have started out in such a strong economy with plenty of jobs deal with unexpected setbacks? The same way Americans have for generations, of course, but that will not make it easy to watch... It is why we as Americans have worked so hard for generations to provide a better life for our children than we had ourselves. We, baby boomers, have had it good and our children even better. The hardships of depression and war are the stories of our parents and grandparents, they are not our stories. And the stories have rarely, I fear, been passed down to this next generation. What then do we do? First, we pray. Then we put feet to those prayers. We must be active in this election by being informed and informing others as to the positions of the candidates so that people will not make sound bite decisions. We get involved with the Fairtax organization, www.fairtax.org with American Solutions www.americansolutions.com “drill here, drill now, save money” drive, and we call our senators and representatives and keep them informed about our opinions. We have to be heard in Washington and we will have to be heard loud and clear long after the election no matter who wins.
June 11, 2008
The stock market is down another 200 points today. This is not good, of course, but, in my opinion it is long over due. I have not believed for a long time that the market should be over 10,000. I have been waiting for it to settle out there.
Friday, June 6, 2008
On impending disaster.The Dow lost almost 400 points today or 3.13 percent. Oil went up 11 dollars, following a $5.50 jump yesterday. I was feeling a little ridiculous for being such an alarmist and for being on edge about the economy. That lasted two days. Today it is back. The bicycle option will be seriously explored and all survival scenarios are back in play. This will make the Great Depression look like a mere downturn. And the politicians who are going to try to get us out of it are just as miss guided and economically ignorant as they were in 1929. In 1933-34, 10,000 pages of regulations and law was added to the less that 3,000 that made up all of the United States legal code since 1789. The first year of the next administration is likely to make that look like composition book. Between the war, the economic disaster, and "global warming/cooling" (which ever is in a year from now.) the fury at which Congress is going to write laws and the President is going to issue Executive Orders is going to be an Arctic blizzard. We are in for a wild ride.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
polls closing june 3, 2008
On politics. It looks like the Democrat’s nominee is Obama. I say “looks like” because I’ll not count Hillary out until the conventions is over. I still do not believe (completely anyway) that she will not still steal the nomination. It just seems so Clintonesque to steal things. It will be a long campaign season listening to McCain and looking at his silly smile. Obama is no better. His accent it very Midwestern although, I hear it here in Illinois, but he manages to exaggerate it somehow that makes it hard to listen to. Then we will have to listen to one of them for four more years. (Not that Hillary is easy on the ears.)
On books. I am currently reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales. It is a frightening book on the Great Depression. It is frightening because of what a loose cannon FDR was and how some of the things he did are the very things that the current presidential candidates are purposing. FDR tried to tax excessive profits. He tinkered with the value of the dollar (ok, that’s the Fed today). But from his inaugration in March until October he took the United States off the gold standard and tried to expand the money supply by buying back gold, but it was never enough to really inject enough money back in to the economy. When he returned the U.S. to the gold standard and set the price of gold at tirty-fve dollars, bussiness knew what the rules were and things began to improve. It was a happy accident that at just this time Hitler was making France and other European countries nervous and they were happy to send their gold back to the United States for safety. Gold poured in the the country and the money supply expanded.
He tried many things just to appear to be doing something, anything without regard for any unintended consequences. If one thing did not work, he just tried something else until something seemed to work. He did not let the markets find their natural rhythms and do what markets do. No, he tinkered. And the more he tinkered the worse things got.
On politics again. This is a great book to be reading right now because we are going to have to elect a candidate that is going to say then do many of the same things FDR did, and he had it all wrong. So do Obama and McCain. Unfortunately, I do not believe enough of the American public has a firm enough grasp of economics nor a great enough knowledge of history to allow them to make the right choice. Most are going to feel like there is no choice and throw up their hands and stay home. We cannot do that. There is a choice to be made even if it is for the lesser of two evil. (Heard that before? Tired of that yet?) I think I know what that choice must be, but I probably will not be sure until I see what Hillary can pull off. So I’ll talk about that later.
Finally, on religion. Psalm 66:16 “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” What a beautiful thought, “what he hath done for my soul.” Truly He has done much for my soul. He brings me comfort, He forgives me, He keeps me safe in the palm of His hand. He is growing me in ways that I had not noticed and still cannot quite articulate. But it is a good place to be. And I am thankful.
On politics. It looks like the Democrat’s nominee is Obama. I say “looks like” because I’ll not count Hillary out until the conventions is over. I still do not believe (completely anyway) that she will not still steal the nomination. It just seems so Clintonesque to steal things. It will be a long campaign season listening to McCain and looking at his silly smile. Obama is no better. His accent it very Midwestern although, I hear it here in Illinois, but he manages to exaggerate it somehow that makes it hard to listen to. Then we will have to listen to one of them for four more years. (Not that Hillary is easy on the ears.)
On books. I am currently reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales. It is a frightening book on the Great Depression. It is frightening because of what a loose cannon FDR was and how some of the things he did are the very things that the current presidential candidates are purposing. FDR tried to tax excessive profits. He tinkered with the value of the dollar (ok, that’s the Fed today). But from his inaugration in March until October he took the United States off the gold standard and tried to expand the money supply by buying back gold, but it was never enough to really inject enough money back in to the economy. When he returned the U.S. to the gold standard and set the price of gold at tirty-fve dollars, bussiness knew what the rules were and things began to improve. It was a happy accident that at just this time Hitler was making France and other European countries nervous and they were happy to send their gold back to the United States for safety. Gold poured in the the country and the money supply expanded.
He tried many things just to appear to be doing something, anything without regard for any unintended consequences. If one thing did not work, he just tried something else until something seemed to work. He did not let the markets find their natural rhythms and do what markets do. No, he tinkered. And the more he tinkered the worse things got.
On politics again. This is a great book to be reading right now because we are going to have to elect a candidate that is going to say then do many of the same things FDR did, and he had it all wrong. So do Obama and McCain. Unfortunately, I do not believe enough of the American public has a firm enough grasp of economics nor a great enough knowledge of history to allow them to make the right choice. Most are going to feel like there is no choice and throw up their hands and stay home. We cannot do that. There is a choice to be made even if it is for the lesser of two evil. (Heard that before? Tired of that yet?) I think I know what that choice must be, but I probably will not be sure until I see what Hillary can pull off. So I’ll talk about that later.
Finally, on religion. Psalm 66:16 “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” What a beautiful thought, “what he hath done for my soul.” Truly He has done much for my soul. He brings me comfort, He forgives me, He keeps me safe in the palm of His hand. He is growing me in ways that I had not noticed and still cannot quite articulate. But it is a good place to be. And I am thankful.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
On teaching. I am a teacher. But I no longer have a classroom (more on that later). After eleven and a half years of pouring information, humor, wisdom, worldview, and a healthy dose of mothering into young minds, I find myself both at a loss and at a threshold—where to go from here.
Right now here is with my aunt. She can now longer stay on her own. Here is also near my daughter and her family which affords me the opportunity not only to get to know her again, but to spend precious time with my granddaughter. Here is along way away from home though, and I miss my best friend terribly. I get home twice a year at least and Verizon is making no money off our “in family” phone plan. For now, however, here is where I need to be, and that is clear.
How to make the most of my time here is another question--one that I hope I will be able to answer by writing. It is what I have dreamed of doing but hated to stop long enough to put thoughts and ideas to paper. I have no excuse now because “here” comes with a great deal of time. I have time to study, time to exercise, time to read, time to pray, time to talk on the phone and all this on top of keeping house, fixing things, cleaning things, cooking, shopping, babysitting, going to doctor’s appointments and therapy. There is time to listen to endless talk shows and to read the newspaper every day. All this and get eight or ten hours of sleep a night. A teacher never had it so good. The only problem is I have no students. So pencil and paper or computer and keyboard will be my classroom and where as before I had a captive audience now I will have to capture one. But perhaps some of the things that made me a good teacher will help me become a good writer.
Now see I have written one paragraph and I am ready to call it a night. It takes a long time to put words on paper. I have to wonder if I have the tenacity. But I feel I must. I know what I do all day is important, but it does not feel like accomplishment. It feels like it lacks achievement and I have always been an overachiever.
So here is my first obsession put to rest. Four dollar a gallon gasoline. How are we going to survive this. Why won’t our politicians see that this is going to destroy our country if we are not allowed to find and develop energy here and do it now. I am going to buy the most expensive recumbent bicycle I can find. I believe that to survive we are going to have to park our cars and get places under our own power. Driving is going to become something we only do when we absolutely must.
Here is another one. I live in a trailer park on a lot that barely sustains grass. How could I possibly feed us “off the land” if it really came to that? I will have to ride my bicycle into town to my daughter’s house or her in-laws and help them put in a massive garden and hope to be able to feed three families off out of it. And I will need a shotgun to shoot these fat squirrels that have the run of the park. Only thing is that, this state has some crazy gun laws, and I don’t even know if I can get a gun.
Okay that’s an hour for the first night. A three hundred page novel should only take about five years.
Right now here is with my aunt. She can now longer stay on her own. Here is also near my daughter and her family which affords me the opportunity not only to get to know her again, but to spend precious time with my granddaughter. Here is along way away from home though, and I miss my best friend terribly. I get home twice a year at least and Verizon is making no money off our “in family” phone plan. For now, however, here is where I need to be, and that is clear.
How to make the most of my time here is another question--one that I hope I will be able to answer by writing. It is what I have dreamed of doing but hated to stop long enough to put thoughts and ideas to paper. I have no excuse now because “here” comes with a great deal of time. I have time to study, time to exercise, time to read, time to pray, time to talk on the phone and all this on top of keeping house, fixing things, cleaning things, cooking, shopping, babysitting, going to doctor’s appointments and therapy. There is time to listen to endless talk shows and to read the newspaper every day. All this and get eight or ten hours of sleep a night. A teacher never had it so good. The only problem is I have no students. So pencil and paper or computer and keyboard will be my classroom and where as before I had a captive audience now I will have to capture one. But perhaps some of the things that made me a good teacher will help me become a good writer.
Now see I have written one paragraph and I am ready to call it a night. It takes a long time to put words on paper. I have to wonder if I have the tenacity. But I feel I must. I know what I do all day is important, but it does not feel like accomplishment. It feels like it lacks achievement and I have always been an overachiever.
So here is my first obsession put to rest. Four dollar a gallon gasoline. How are we going to survive this. Why won’t our politicians see that this is going to destroy our country if we are not allowed to find and develop energy here and do it now. I am going to buy the most expensive recumbent bicycle I can find. I believe that to survive we are going to have to park our cars and get places under our own power. Driving is going to become something we only do when we absolutely must.
Here is another one. I live in a trailer park on a lot that barely sustains grass. How could I possibly feed us “off the land” if it really came to that? I will have to ride my bicycle into town to my daughter’s house or her in-laws and help them put in a massive garden and hope to be able to feed three families off out of it. And I will need a shotgun to shoot these fat squirrels that have the run of the park. Only thing is that, this state has some crazy gun laws, and I don’t even know if I can get a gun.
Okay that’s an hour for the first night. A three hundred page novel should only take about five years.
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