Messy Greed

Because I feel the pressure of you all wanting more (and thus far, that would be all 14 of you that have, or had, visited my blog either intentionally or most likely not), I have culled together some more thoughts on the current predicament of our federal government.

I am disgusted because this whole mess is firmly founded on greed. The economy was up, and as such, people felt obligated to spend. And there were plenty of sharks in the water waiting for them in the form of lending for housing.

By definition, what is the American Dream? Well, it isn't really to earn lots of money and be really rich. It is the ability to buy home, settle down, and provide a better life for your family, better than anywhere else. And that's what so many Americans did. Except, they over-extended what they should have deserved. I'm a big proponent of you deserve what you earn. But, the sharks in the water convinced millions of people to take a bigger bite, and to hedge their bets that they could afford more since the economy was doing so well.

As we all know, these sub-prime loans are the primary reason we're in this mess. The financial back-bone of the US is in a crisis, so much so that Congress (the opposite of progress) is now putting together a $700 billion dollar bailout. The rodeo grandmas are already gone it is so bad. You can really blame both parties, as they are both guilty. Believe me, it goes back decades.

The main problem I see is how much it will effect all of us for many years, if not the rest of our years. 5.4% is the anticipated inflation for this year. I get a cost of living increase this year, of 3.2%. I'll get a step increase in June which may make up the difference, but the problem is that inflation is going to be even higher next year. And the federal deficit will eclipse 10 trillion with this bailout. Sure, it's money we mostly owe to ourselves, because we borrow it from the banks that are in need of a bailout right now. But we also owe lots to other countries as well. I've already discussed this before.

Here's where it'll hit us, the consumers who are not in default on our loans, mortgage or otherwise. Gas will go back up, because the dollar will be worth less. And whereas the politicians let the off-shore dirlling ban expire, that will not be a relief anytime soon. And even when that does come online, it'll stil be expensive by then. Oil goes up (already going back up) and goods become more expensive to ship around. Everything goes up in price, and your dollar doesn't stretch as far.

Here's what I don't like; it used to be a wife went to work to get you ahead in life. You were ridiculed for it, and perhaps your family life suffered from it. Then it became a kind of norm for the wife to work as well, thank you women's lib and the rights therein. Now your wife has to work so you can remain in middle-class. Soon, both of you will be working and probably not make any headway. I read an articule the other day that stated it was a "privilege" to say you have a 'stay-at-home' wife. A status symbole of sorts. Will I ever get to say that?

The next thing is that this government buy-out includes buying all these foreclosures at a extremely low option, I've heard as low as .10 on the dollar. Then the government sells these back to buyers at a higher cost, and will recoup their money. They did this during the last depression. But, if some of those houses are along your block, guess what just happened to the value of your home? Ours has dropped $1500 already, and we haven't been her that long. But it'll probably go down even more.

Americans already work too much, stress too much, and take as little as vacation as possible. This will not bode well on many levels. And the greedy live on.

Limivorous: Eating dirt like a worm

I was engaged in an interesting conversation between a dentist and someone who had once spoken to a nurse. So the credibility took a nose dive on that last source, but hear me out nonetheless.

Clean freaks; to what benefit do they gain for all their overt OCD position? The dentist went on to explain the benefits of your saliva and how it improves from germs, which, in turn, help build your immune system. Naturally I brought up the necessity of swapping spit with ... people. Yeah, no one laughed then either. However, this provoked the conversation to the next level. Our society has become so anti-germ crazy, that we are actually raising a generation without a good immune system. We spend so much time and resources sanitizing our environment, that our immune systems are, in a word, bored.

There's a problem, however. Immune systems actually do not get bored, they get restless and either turn on each other, or worse, cease to be productive at an optimal level. Before I get any further into this, another point was brought up; when you use soaps that sanitize "99.9%" of all germs, that leaves that immune .1% to monopolize and create more problems than the 99.9% probable benign germs would have. That 99.9% was keeping the peace, in a manner of speaking.

Still, let's look at today's society. Lots of problems these days with regards health; more asthma, allergies, colds, and coincidently, unnatural phobia of germs. Our lazy under-worked immune system has its guard down because someone has already killed all the normal germs that our body battled on a daily basis. Everything is filtered, pre-washed, pre-cleaned, recleaned, and thoroughly sanitized.

I'm not against washing hands after going to the bathroom, or changing babies too. No need to throw caution to the wind, whatever that means. And perhaps I should consult a microbiologist or someone else in the necessary fields of study. But in the interim, I think it's time we started eating more dirt to make up for lost opportunity. Maybe my daughter does have a point, but at least she should try to find better quality dirt. Let's have some standards around here.

Hunted by a cougar

I've trekked through lots of forests up and down the west coast, spanning from Alaska down to deserts in California and Mexico, but I've never been stalked by a cougar... until today.

Ask any moderately drunk individual, and they'll concede that I am a pretty decent looking fellow to behold. Without being imbibed, and I'm just better than marginal, despite telling myself overt pleasantries in the mirror every morning. Roar.

However, today, at my adequate State job, I was cornered rather quickly by an over-40 lady. She was really upfront about it, "I've been checking you out..." and, "I think we should get to know each other better..." and "what is your dating status?" It was kinda awkward, because, this is the first time a "cougar" has taken me on. I guess my musk smell needs to be amped up. Of course, my philosophy is, if you're checking someone out, the first thing you do it look at the left ring finger. That's kind of a tall-tell sign in my opinion. I should add, I really do not know this woman at all, I've been at this job for over 2 months, 6 weeks of which were training.

Over the seven years I've been married (7 years as of today), I've been approached, now, 4 times with extra-marital affair offers. I guess I am starting to look closer to my age if the cougars are coming out of the wood-work. In some regards, I'd rather face a real wild cat in the wilderness, as that would be a cool story, and there'd be no penalty for shooting them. Doesn't translate well into this circumstance, however.

In the end, she thanked me for being honest and faithful to my wife. She, on the other hand, had been married for well over a decade, and now divorced for just under a decade. Still, her parting words were, "look me up if your situation changes or if you're feeling weak." Bold, but not smooth. Maybe I'll cut out personal hygiene... or maybe I'll just start caring a gun.

Bad kitty!

Bad!