Okay. Second time out. For now, I'll bore you with some opinions worthy of the bloviating blogosphere. Then I'll try to dazzle you with some fun stuff.
The Big Change continues to swell before us. We are experiencing the first rush of it, but the main body, the real sea-change, is still to come.
I don't mean political change alone, although that is surely part of it. And it is so interesting that both candidates are now running as Change agents.
Rather, I expect a coming fundamental break with our modern lifestyle. The Economy. The Environment. Energy Resources. Transportation. Consumerism. Technology and Consciousness. How we live; how we think. These and other issues are interwoven strands of this Big Change, and are subjects I'd like to address in the coming days.
For now, let's briefly touch upon our suffering economy. Some twenty years ago, an economist named Pete Petersen suggested that if America over-reached itself by extending an empire-like influence around the world, it would suffer predictable consequences. Without a manufacturing base of "real goods" to export, our economy would become sapped by emerging economies around the world. Additionally, if our economy tilted too far towards generating wealth through financial services, it would suffer the fates of every other "empire" that did the same: a diminished ability to maintain domestic infrastructures, unsustainable costs of military obligations and a deep and lengthy contraction of international influence. What a Cassandra!
Today, the Wall Street house of cards has been re-shuffled, minus a few cards. This wobbly structure that holds the retirement plans for millions is but a breath away from complete collapse.
Are you happy that Social Security was not privatized by the Republicans and the Bush Administration? Are you happy that your portfolio statement is going to reflect a 20% dip next time you see it?
Democrats are not faultless here; the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagel Act was bi-partisan. It opened the gates for the deregulation of the financial service sector, which simply accelerated during the Bush years as the brakes were officially taken off of the SEC to let the market do its thing. The Market. Let the Market solve its own inequities...
So now what do we have? The wonderful, glistening, gilded Playhouse, which was created by our financial titans and their political mouthpieces, is on fire. It's out of control. The Fed fire department is on the scene, but the hoses are too short and the water pressure is too low. So let's hope the wind blows the flames out, and doesn't spread them any further...
Ooof. What a downer. Let's liven things up a little bit. Check out the following:
YouTube - Bo Diddley - Hey, Bo Diddley and Bo Diddley
Thanks for the clip, Chris. This is so great: grainy black and white video from a very different age. Screaming white girls in the audience. Sultry black girls on stage (The Diddlyettes). And a moaning, leering, rock n roll radical - Bo Diddley.
Finally, the quote of the day:
"There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception."
-- James Thurber
9 comments:
I'll bet Peter Peterson spent hours plotting revenge on his parents because of that name. Makes you wonder how he found the time to develop his crackpot theories. I also note he is a Northwestern graduate. Figures you guys would stick together.
Shamaa master,
Brilliant bloviating... McCain campaign headquarters is on two floors of my building downtown. All 10000 volunteers, most of whom smarmed me on the elevator, assume I'm one of them because of the uniform I wear. Excruciating.
Hey Mike from the Swamplands!
Ni hao shwa Potonkwa? Just did a quick read of Zakaria's The Post American World on the way back from Hong Kong. Another tome extolling the probability that this soon will be the late Great United States of America. Given that Morgan Stanley is speaking to CITIC as I write this comment, I'm not so sure that November is even relevant any longer. By the time the House of Bush is taken over by an ingenue, the US may have sold itself in pieces to the other 5.7 billion on this planet and I, like my peers, may be out on I-95 with a sign reading "Will litgate for food".
Im A Little Confused
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
*If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
_____________________________________
Someone sent me this link, it's scary:
As an Independent, Republican, Democrat who is a Bipartition Christen Separatist and Patriot with Wings.... I wanted to share the following link for your enjoyment should you have not already seen?
Please note the bold facts and Google "Bone Chilling Video" and note the website author(s).Otherwise, click the link below:
http://www.usawakeup.org
PS: A vote will take place in November to make us "just get along"? Don't forget to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the Comedy Channel!
Boy Sharon, I sure do hope that your diatribe wasn't directed at me. Afterall, I sent my $2,500 to Obama and do believe that I had an Obama event at my house 3 months ago (but that may have been my imagination ... you know we who live quiet, responsible lives have a great capacity for flights of fantasy).
As for McPlain and the breeding housewife who's a worldly sophisticate by virtue of her visiting Mexico (didn't the press say she honeymooned there) and walking over the Canadian border... If they do get in the W/H, all I can say is that this Country gets the government it deserves right before I transfer myself and what remains of my assets off continent (glad I learned Mandarin earlier this decade).
See ya.
Mike,
Bravo on your liberal diatribe. I would expect nothing less. I agree that financial deregulation created much of the mess we're experiencing now. I, too, am not happy about so much government intervention to clear up the financial markets. It seems like the executive branch is doing too much and the legislative branch is doing too little at the present time. The difference in our opinions (and those of your fellow left wing bloggers) is where the country is headed. Most of the world is either under some type of oppressive rule or (worse) is under some sort of socialistic system that redistributes wealth. Ours is still a system of reward for hard work. Our great country has expanded its manufacturing and export capabilities over the past several years, thus expanding our economy. Most of the rest of the world puts up walls to keep people in, we need walls to keep people out. I don't share your pessimism. We're still the greatest, strongest country on Earth.
I can't say that the Republican Party or John McCain in particular will make any sort of changes, but I know that he has more experience and is so much more qualified to be president than his opponent. Stating a prepared message from written words, looking good, having a beautiful (and intelligent) wife and kids, and having very good intellectual pedigree does not qualify one to be president. So much of the focus is now on the Republican VP nominee. It's a good liberal strategy, as it seems to take away focus from such on unqualified presidential candidate. Stating that you’ll make change for the sake of change isn’t necessarily policy. Obama is an old style liberal. Period. I like the way the message is delivered. I just don’t find any substance. The Denver speech could have been a moment of change for the country and for me personally. He could have swayed me. Instead, he swayed me further away by delivering a speech that was more like Ted Kennedy and less like John Kennedy. He simply got his Kennedy’s mixed up!
I read an editorial in the Washington Post last weekend from a reader. Yes, I read the Post - best place to find out how the liberal minority thinks. The reader was a woman who wrote about Sarah Palin. She stated that Palin did not stand on the side of "a majority of" women in America on issues. I disagree. This leftist from the posh Maryland suburbs has most likely never been to the majority of America, where most women agree with Sarah Palin on many issues. I'm sure the Maryland suburbanite is highly educated, intelligent, and thinks about things before she writes them. She just doesn't have her finger on the pulse of America. And the saddest thing about folks like her is that they typically have an opinion that folks like me are "reactionary" and just need to be re-educated. They can't agree to disagree, they are "progressive". They can’t accept that I think about issues and have come to my opinions based on experience and education.
So, in this election season and beyond, I hope that I can be your reasonable antagonist, willing to listen and willing to share.
Ken
Ken,
As a REPUBLICAN and not a LEFT WINGER (and being Mike's cousin, I never got the impression he was a dyed in the wool leftist either), gotta say, Palin is not representative of women who actually don't think that getting on their knees is an honorable career choice. If McCain wanted a qualified woman, let's see, I can think of a few offhand: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Betty Ireland, Jeanette Bradley, et al. All these women have exposure to the ADVANCED FINANCIAL CONCEPTS which are bringing down the stability of this country (and I'm not just talking about the immediate market crisis. Social security/pension issues, health care distribution, taxation, school funding, etc.). Palin, though a woman, is pure pandering to the disenfranchised "Hillary-ites" and the disenfranchised evangelicals. I'm sure Palin is a sweet, well-meaning lady, but I'd like someone representing me who has dealt with a few more complicated issues than lobbying for a bigger draw for Alaskans from The Permanent Fund and deciding how many Caribou a hunter can kill during season. With the economic hardships affecting everyone in this country (from the stock person at Walmart to the likes of even billionaires like Hank Greenberg), wouldn't it have made more sense for our party to have picked someone with some business background? Moreover, was the hangover from Hillary that scary that we couldn't have put the most qualified candidate from this cycle's "patch" in as VP - Mitt Romney (or are we just all that scared of those in our party w/ 2 teeth in their mouths, 10 cents in their pockets, and 1 brain cell in their heads who think that Mormons are the moral equivalent of the AntiChrist).
Ken, you've just proven that it's not only liberals that spew sweeping generalizations about in the name of party patriotism, but embarrassingly, members of our own party such as you who hurl the accusation of "liberal" at all who do not agree with your adroit perspectives.
Oh, and btw, some people who do differ with your views do have jobs and do think that the US is full of opportunities for those who are willing to go after them. However, some of we well-educated, very well-paid, well-traveled individuals realize that the rest of the "industrialized" world isn't living in oppressive shackles and that even those which still adhere to such labels as Communism, Socialism, and other-ism, encourage entrepreneurship and the pursuit of wealth. It's nice to pontificate from an internet podium about what is going on in the rest of the world, but your dialogue has even more legitimacy if you've actually been to these supposed "suppressed" countries and have done business in them.
Just a couple of words from this Republican who thinks that adhering to party lines under all circumstances is only a good idea if the line is most decidedly headed to the gourmet buffet!
Oh, and FlaSwampGirl is me, Pauline, who posted above (I see that Google finally used my online moniker a/o/t my identity for this last post - oh well). I don't hide from my opinions!
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