Sixty Seven: Entertainment

Rush Limbaugh. Jim Cramer. Garrison Keilor. Any network "news" anchor. Geraldo Rivera (who used to be Jerry Rivers). So many listeners and viewers mistake these folks for philosophers, social/political informed commentators, or experts. In fact they are all just entertainers. They are personalities paid to attract an audience which advertisers (mistakenly) believe are buying their goods or servces.

People love to be entertained, which is another way saying that people seek distraction from whatever else they should be focusing on. Dissatisfaction, disenchantment, disapproval, discomfort are all states of mind which require fixing, but which most people seeks answers for externally rather than introspectively. This never works.

We all have exactly the same capacity for success and self-improvement. One's resource for improving one's lot lies inside.

Sixty Six: An Honest Speech

Today, President BO issued the following prepared remarks:

"Frankly, I don't have a clue what is going on with the economy. And neither does anybody else. The plain fact is that for way too long, way too many people and companies, borrowed way too much money, with way too little proper underwriting being done by lenders. For those borrowers who have defaulted on their loans, they should rightly lose their credit cards and their houses. They can live in apartments until they have saved enough money to have a reasonable downpayment on a new house.

For those lenders who are holding bad paper with insufficient collateral, they should rightly be forced out of business. Yes, innocent people will lose jobs, but that's the way it goes. These people should have been saving money while they were working at employers who business model was shaky at best.

For those investors who bought securities in companies who have fared badly in the recession, they should (and have) rightly lose their investments.

For those politicians who encouraged or forced lenders to make dubious loans to unqualified borrowers for purely political reasons, and which same politicians are now grandstanding for the cameras, they should rightly be held up to ridicule and shame, and should (but probably will not) lose their elected offices.

For those CEOs who have presided over companies losing billions of investor and taxpayer money, they should rightly lose their jobs.

And when all of this has happened, whoever happens to be president at that time, will be declared a good and great leader.

Thank you, and good night."

Sixty Five: Governing By Feel

President BO has the distinct feel of a guy who has never actually managed or run anything in his entire life. I mean not even a lemonade stand. Oops, I guess that's because he has never managed or run anything in his entire life! This is a guy who has less executive experience than any president in my memory, which goes back to JFK, who while he never had an executive position in government before the presidency, at least he commanded a few guys in the Navy in WWII.

BO appears to not have a clue about how to use executive authority because in fact HE DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT HOW TO USE EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. So what else can he do? He's afraid to hire competent manager for fear his own shortcomings will be exposed. Instead, he's running around the country trying to impress people with his "cool." Well I for one don't want cool. I want a guy who knows how to run things and make decisions. I want a commander-in-chief, not a ditherer.

Sixty Four: My Bargain with Melissa Bean

I have a bargain with my country. I pay my taxes. I am a patriot, and support (with time and money) every orgainization I can which defends us and our way of life. I vote. I fly the flag. In exchange for all of this, and for paying a hugely exhorbitant salary to Melissa Bean and the rest of the welfare recipients in Congress, I think I have a right to expect my U.S. Representative to answer one of my wirtten queries to her office. I have offered to pay her to respond. But nothing ever comes, save for one lame resposne from a sychophant staffer.

My bargain is representative of that which so many millions of AMericans have, or thought they had. We ask to have our borders defended, some roads and brdges built, to get some of our Social Security money back at some point. But instead, what do these knckleheads do? They take our money, our children's and grandchildren's money, and give it to deadbeats, losers, MBAs whose only qualification is that they have all collectively demonstrated the ability to fail. And all the while they also keep building their little kingdoms papulated with lazy and inefficient bureaucrats. I guess it's just human nature. Which is why nothing will ever change until we have term limits in the House and Senate.

Sixty Three: Finding The Bottom

Six months ago the price of oil was $140. BAC stock was $35. Today, oil is $45, BAC is $4. The same illustration could be done with GE, GS, JPM, C, the list goes on. To say the chickens are coming home to roost is an understatement. Our federal government's response to this day of reckoning is to print money and spend it through government agencies at a rate never before seen in history. For what purpose and to what end is this mad spending spree for? Evidently, we are trying maintain a standard of living which by definition is unsustainable. Whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not, we need to let prices and markets find a level (bottom) which will attract buyers. To the extent that government continues to artificially prop up prices, will be the extent to which the inevitable process of bottoming will be delayed.

BO and Mr. Geithner appear somewhat like children learning to swim without instruction, but with the knowledge that their parents are standing close by ready to pluck them out of the water. The children haven't a clue what they are doing, but neither are they as terrified as well they should be.