TO BAILOUT OR NOT TO BAILOUT, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Maybe I should just bail out.

$700 billion. Large number. Assuming a 300 million population, that works out to about $2,333 per person in the US.

Now I don't know about you, but I just don't have that kind of cash to give to my banker. Or a broker. Or anyone else.

My daughter has five kids plus a husband. That makes seven. Times $2,333 equals $16,331 for her family. I feel sure she has other needs that that could go for.

And everyone in the US also has better uses for that cash.

And, wait. You are not going to get a chance to direct where it goes. But, you are going to pay it out. Or your kids are. Or your grandkids are. Or their kids.

That is seventy months of the Iraq war costs. Five years and eight months worth.

My nephew sent me a forward of an e-mail he had received regarding the AIG bailout. That one was worth only $85 billion. The guy that wrote it was a pretty poor calculator. He had calculated that about 200 million adults live in the US. And then divided the $85 billion by the 200 million and came up with the staggering sum of $425,000 per adult--actually it works out to $425. Still a fair little bit, that is groceries for my wife and I for about a month and a half. Or gasoline for about two and a half months.

But putting aside for a moment the enormous amount of money, does it make sense to bail out all these firms?

A person saves his money, borrows some more and goes into business. The only reason he does so is to provide a profit that he can retain for his enjoyment. He has responsibilities, primary of which is to pay off that loan he got to start the business. Once that is done, he is free to pocket his profit. If he makes bad decisions, he loses money, and his business folds. And the creditor is out the amount left unpaid. The capitalist system.

Nowhere does it say his customers must come up with the cash to make his business break-even or profitable. That is a risk of doing business. When I overspend my income, I have never found the rich uncle to bail me out. I have to suffer for my bad decisions. What makes them any better than me? Or you?

Of course I don't want the system to fail. But it was not me that made the decision to make bad loans. I do not bet on whether or not twenty million poor credit risks will be given loans for overinflated housing prices. Or whether they will repay them. Common sense has gone out the door while unabashed greed walked in and took over.

And yet they want me, whose basic source of income is Social Security, to bail them out. I already have to pay income taxes on that Social Security check. Now they want to take more of it to give to poor businessmen, businessmen who make more in one hour than I receive in an entire year.

Ethics has no apparent place in the world of business anymore. I could see that coming forty years ago when the MBA's took over from the seasoned executives, when the education received in four years in college was no longer appreciated, but the quickie specialization in how to wring the next dollar out of a business became, not the goal, but the overriding concept. Do whatever is necessary and screw the stockholders, the workers, the public, the government, just produce more and more obscene profit so the pockets of the new executive corps can be lined and relined again. Get that golden parachute from as many companies as you can, and to hell with how you go about it. Or who gets destroyed in the process.

And beginning in 1993 and continuing until this day, that has been the primary thrust of business and it has penetrated into the government as well. Otherwise why would a person spend millions of their own money to gain a seat that pays only a couple of hundred thousand a year? Clinton and Bush baby are as alike as two peas in a pod in this regard. I have no respect for either of those jerks.

Aint deregulation great?

There aint no such thing as a free lunch. Proven over and over again. And no hope on the horizon with the two that are running for president--again. Unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.

VARIATIONS ON NO THEME

This is one of those mornings that my wife had to go to work very early. Every Monday she must be at work at 5:30 AM. So that means that I also have to get up very early. About 4:30 to 4:35 AM. So after seeing her off and closing the gate, I came inside, made my first cup of coffee and, it being a warm morning with the moon riding lower from the zenith, I took my cup and went outside to sit in the swing for a while.

Quiet. Oh, lovely quiet. Except for the air conditioner blowing into my ear. But even that seemed rather subdued this fine morning.

I have been reading a series of books written by Effie Wilder, a resident of a nursing home in South Carolina, which tells of all the activities in her life at the nursing home. Yeah, it sounds like it would be rather boring. After all, what possible cheer could there be in a nursing home?

But you couldn't be further from the truth. Ms. Wilder has the unique ability to see the humor in life, even at her advanced age. She is in her mid- to late eighties (85 when she began the series and there have been at least five or six books so far.) Of course there are the tragedies too--the falls, the sprains, the sicknesses and deaths. Plus the romances among the residents.

If you have a hankering to enjoy some light reading , I suggest you check her books out. I found the at the local library.

Later on today, the garden will be the work of the day. I still have a little left of the corn plants to remove, the tomato plants, cucumbers and the beans. Plus the weeds. Then I can till it up and make it ready for the coming winter. I have already removed the fence that kept the deer out for the past three years. We finally got the creek bank protected with a stock fence and there have been no deer incursions since we got it up. So we are removing all the internal fencing around our garden and flower beds.

And, thinking about the deer, we have had three of them killed just at the end of our road within the past month. We live next to the state highway and there is a hollow up past our house and one across the highway also. So the deer use the hollow roads as a pathway from one area to another. It is not unusual to see herds of as many as six or eight deer going back and forth at any time of the day or night. So some are naturally going to fall prey to the high speed traffic.

The creek runs behind our house, about fifteen feet from the back wall. I have never sen the creek come over the bank right here at the house, but it does do so occasionally upstream and downstream. A few years ago, when Ivan came through, we had the highest water I have ever seen in the twenty-eight years we have lived here. It came over the bank upstream into the field below the garden and went back into its banks about thirty feet upstream from the shed on the back of the house. Then it came out really bad just on the other side of the private road that goes up our hollow, and out into my neighbor's field. At that time a slip had blocked the ditch along the highway and forced water from the ditch all over our front yard. So it really looked like we were surrounded by the water. But our driveway and private road were passable all through it.

We had a birthday cookout for my granddaughter yesterday at her father and step-mother's house (my daughter and her husband.) All six grandkids were there as well as their parents, my wife and I plus her aunt and her kids as well as the grandmother from her father's side. All told about twenty or so people, including boyfriends. A good crowd, good people and lots of laughing and fun.

And this Saturday my brothers and their wives and families all get together at my brother's house in town for our reunion. So I guess it will be family time for a couple of weeks. I've not decided whether to fix ribs or a blackberry cobbler. But at least I have narrowed it down to those two.

I guess I must be regressing. I find myself referring to the local university as Marshall College these days. I was in the second graduating class after it was made into a university back in 1962, but I still refer to it as Marshall College, after years of forcing myself to call it University. Old habits come back to haunt us as we grow older.

As a back-up to my reading materials, I keep a copy o0f Frank Herbert's "Dune" and all the various sequels to it available. I began re-reading it back in early August, as time permits and as I feel the urge. I am about one-third the way through the original book so far. In the meantime I have read about six other novels, as well as starting Wilder's series. Some of the others have been McCaffrey and her son's novels about Pern. And some have been small volumes of poetry (no, I've not written any myself.)

And I watched a lot of the celebrations of the two major political parties. I can't bring myself to call the 'conventions' as they were not conventions in the conventional sense. And I'll let that dog stay asleep.

But it is now almost seven o'clock, and time to be out and doing.

Some other time, maybe.

100 AND COUNTING

One hundred posts.

Wow. It is hard to believe.

One hundred times I have sat down and written an entry to this thing.

Amazing!


About two months ago, we took our kitty to the vet to see what was ailing him. The initial diagnosis was almost too much to comprehend. Hyperthyroidism, diabetes, cardiac racing, you name it, it seemed old Scruffy had it. After blood tests were performed, we eliminated some of it, most of it, and the final diagnosis was just feline diabetes.

So we started an insulin regimen, one unit once daily, and remove all soft foods from his diet. A week or so later we did another fasting blood screen. The result was that we moved the insulin to one unit twice daily and fortified his diet with a special food.

After ten days, another screen. Good results. He began gaining some weight, muscle improvement, better bathroom habits. We do not look for any more major improvements, but a kitty that weighed over fifteen pounds and had gotten down to just over two pounds is now back up to six or seven pounds. He still acts like he is hungry all the time, but he eats regularly and has a lot more activity than he did.

So after almost $600 spent on a 'free' kitty I have to say that it has been worth it to see the improvement in him. He is already over fourteen years old and cannot be expected to live too much longer but for now he seems like a much healthier and happy kitty, and that makes it worthwhile. I don't think he'll see the nineteen years that Tommy had, though.

It is a wet, rainy morning this morning. I got the yard mowed yesterday, humid as it was. Took most of the day even with the riding mower. I still need to get the area outside the fence, but I'm not going to get it done today, I don't imagine, with the showers moving through the area.

Yesterday was one of our granddaughters sixteenth birthday. And one of our grandsons becomes sixteen in about two weeks. And contrary to popular opinion, it does not make us older, it makes us younger to be around such vital young people.

The talking heads are doing so in the background. They cannot seem to make up their mind whether the reporting on the hurricane is more important or whether they should stay with the election campaigns. Maybe they should ask the viewers. I think the hurricane would win.

My family reunion happens this weekend. I look forward to seeing my brothers again and catching up on what they are into these days. The oldest is 70 and I am the youngest at 66. The other two fall somewhere in between. Three others passed away from 1994 to 2002.

My only surviving aunt died last weekend out in California. I hadn't seen her since back around 1992 or 1993. So now I really am one of the old ones. A member of the oldest generation of our families still living.

And maybe that is why I spend so much time on our genealogy. No one else seems to be interested, but I think it will be a valuable piece of history to our younger ones. Some of my relatives can hardly believe it when I can speak with some authority on people who lived fifty, eighty, or a hundred years ago--where they lived, what they worked at, who their relatives were, and what they accomplished, what schools they attended, where they are buried--they myriad of details that are not important, but people like to talk about.

And the most interesting part of it is the differences in the records as seen by different people. There is one woman who is said to be the daughter of two completely different sets of parents (although the purported fathers were brothers) and who purportedly was married to two different men at the same time having children by both at the same time. Each descendancy list has about 200 or more people in them, some intermarrying of course.

And I have just discovered there is a dispute over who the father of one of my wife's and my own joint progenitor back about 150 years ago. Fun all day.

I decided not to do any political stuff yesterday. It just did not seem to be the thing that meant the most on such a day. Yesterday was a day of remembrance and re-dedication. But that time is over and by tomorrow I'll be back at it again, I feel sure.


Y'all have fun and I'll begin my second hundred sometime soon.

FINALLY---I SPEAK OUT ON OBAMA

Well, well, well--

So Mr. Er Ah has decided to open seven campaign offices within the state of West Virginia. How interesting. Funny that he has never shown any interest in this state before. Could the latest polls be worrying him just a little? Gallup has him trailing by five points among registered voters nationwide. Our local Herald Dispatch unscientific poll shows him losing by 26 points. There are hundreds of polls, and a few actually show him to be ahead, but only by one or two points. So now he is going to shower the state with cash to see if he can pull it out.

I have no doubt that it will be by far less than 26 points in West Virginia, but surely he will lose the state by a fairly wide margin. West Virginia Democrats are still pissed off by the actions of their leaders in supporting Obama when Clinton won overwhelmingly. And, although many still repeat the old black man can't get elected in West Virginia mantra, that is a very very small number of voters.

But, and a big but, this black man cannot get elected in West Virginia. While we are pictured nationwide as a very prejudiced people in this state, that is simply another stereotype promulgated by the media and reinforced by those who do not know us. There is far less bigotry due to racial origins in this state than in most around the country.

Sure there are those here who still use the N word. And the influx of blacks selling drugs has not helped that situation. The rapid increases in crime, committed primarily by the blacks who have come for that purpose, has not helped that situation. And it is not just in the Huntington area. All areas of the state, even very small communities have been affected by this scourge.

But the people in West Virginia are still the old independent mountaineer stock, on the whole. We recognize and esteem people as they are, not according to their race, but according to their actions. And most recognize the ephemeral nature of the influx. Most see that if the local population will resist the attraction of illegal street drugs, the problem will reduce to manageable size.

And there will always be those who do look at the color or ethnicity or religious beliefs as the measure of a person. Nationwide and worldwide phenomenon. Not a trait that can be said to be pervasive in our communities.

Be that as it may, Obama has little chance to succeed in West Virginia for a great number of reasons. But the primary reason is that he is completely out of touch with us. The last elitist president who won wide approval in West Virginia was Franklin Roosevelt. And Obama, unlike Roosevelt, has no substance to his ideas. I am not a great admirer of Roosevelt, but at least he followed up his statements with actual performance. He was able to galvanize a country that had been brought to its knees economically and socially. Obama talks a good game, but cannot provide methodologies to fulfill his promises, or at the very least, has not done so as yet.

Obama's pick of Joe Biden was a disaster for his campaign. It was an open admission that he has no usable experience and is praying that Biden can prop him up. Unfortunately, Biden is the third most liberal in his votes over his career of some thirty years in Congress. Obama is number one during his short tenure, by the way.

So the stage is set.

Obama preaches change and in order to secure it he wants to spend, spend, spend. He has said that he will provide tax relief for 95% of the American people. That leaves very few people to pay the trillions of additional spending that he has proposed.

He has indicated that he wants to join with all countries of the world in discussions. But no conditions antecedent. He by his silence indicates that UN sanctions mean nothing to him. He wants the UN Security Council to rap Russia's knuckles for the mess in Georgia, not realizing that Russia has full veto power over that body. He said the surge in Iraq would not work. When proven wrong, he still insists that he would not have approved it.

Just what IS in his head? He must wear asbestos clothing to protect him from all the rapid rotations of ideas he puts forth. He changes alright. He changes his positions daily, to suit whatever audience happens to be on tap that day.


Simply put, I do not like him. A man who vacillates so much is no leader, and is not a person I want to lead this country for one day, much less for four years. And the thought that his running mate MIGHT someday be president, God forbid anything happening to Obama, terrifies me.

Admittedly, I am a conservative, in thought and action. But this goes way beyond that. Had the Republicans nominated someone of Obama's character and qualifications, even if he/she were a staunch conservative, I would be saying the same about him/her. I would vote for a screaming liberal before I would vote for a know-nothing such as that.

IT IS UP TO EACH MAN...

A hellburner, huh? Well, probably not.

First, what was this country based upon? I keep hearing people talking about this country being founded upon Christian principles. I strongly disagree. Try as I might, I can find nothing in the Declaration of Independence about Christianity. Same hold true within the Preamble to the Constitution. And those are the only two documents that give us a hint. They lay out the reason the colonists felt it necessary to separate from England, and what the victorious rebels wanted to accomplish by their new Constitution, after suffering for eight or so years with the Articles of Confederation. They decided to use a federal system. And that system is still in effect today, the longest lasting Republic that has ever graced the face of the earth.

Were the framers of our freedoms and the Constitution which guarantees it religious? Very much so. Both documents speak of God or the Creator. Great obeisance is apparent. Some say they were Deists. Some actually persist in saying they were agnostic, some far outs also repeat the word atheist. They were neither agnostic nor atheist. But they did have a faith and reverence for God. As do I. I do not claim to be a Christian. But I do believe in God.

Why?

Probably I can illustrate this belief and the reason for it in a little story.

Back in the Dark Ages, some forty plus years ago, I was a member of the Jaycees. As an active member, I was involved in a number of different projects. At one time in particular, I had traveled to Charleston to assist in planning the statewide Miss America pageant for the state. After we had completed our meetings for the morning we got back in the station wagon and headed back up US 21 to Parkersburg. Somehow the topic or religion and God came up.

My boss was driving, my friend was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was sitting outboard in the rear seat. For whatever reason, we were stopped in traffic, and continuing the conversation Lee asked me if I really believed in God. I told him that I did. He then asked me the unanswerable question--why.

I sat for a moment collecting my thoughts. Then I replied that he should look out the window into the creek that ran beside the road and he would find my answer there. He did so, looking puzzled, and then said, "All I see are the minnows swimming in the creek." And I replied, "There is the answer you seek."


"But what has that to do with your belief in God?" he persisted. So I told him, roughly, as follows.

"You see, Lee, I cannot prove by science that God exists. I know He does because the father and mother of those little minnows were not rocks. Like all creatures, their little bodies are precise copies of their parents. Their hearts beat just as mine does. They are covered with skin, just as I. They have the exact same drive for living that both you and I have. They even have a brain as we do."

"Something created them, as a species, however many millions of years ago. Just as man was created as a species, so many millions of years ago."

And here he interrupted, "But the Bible says that man was created only some six thousand years ago."

To which I replied, "But the Bible was written by man and interpreted by other men through the ages. I do not say the Bible is not the inspired word of God, only that the Bible necessarily was written by man and is therefore subject to error in transcription and interpretation. We have all heard the scientific theory about the 'big bang.' Do you believe in that?"

He nodded in the affirmative.

"Is that also a Biblical event?"

He nodded negatively, but was considering the possibility.

I said, as the clincher, "Let there be light."

"Lee, as much as people may deny the existence of God, the very fact of original creation is now pretty much a scientific given--the big bang theory is accepted as the final answer to the beginning of the universe. And years before, 2000 years before someone finally figured this out, God had directed man to record this event right there in the Bible. So if there is a presence, a supernatural being that is capable of that, that we call God, that so accurately described the beginning of the universe, how can anyone say with finality that God does not exist? He has just proven his existence beyond a doubt. And the proof was right back there in that pool of water, if we are only smart enough to see it."

"I look around me, and I see butterflies, mankind, birds, squirrels, flowers, grass--all the living creatures and all the living plants, and I know that it took an intelligence far greater than any that has existed in mankind to create it all, set the laws of nature that we all are forced to obey--without even knowing we are--the laws that govern the motion of the stars, what keeps earth spinning around the sun and the moon spinning around the earth. My question to you is why would I not believe in God, with all this proof that he does exist?"

"And yet, I know, I cannot place God on a plate or table for you to see and examine. You must do that within yourself. Only you can convince you of His existence."

And Jim spoke up and said, "Lee. You lost that argument."

To which I replied, "No, the argument will continue until the end of our lives upon this earth. Because no one can really define his faith in God without saying simply that this is what he believes or does not believe."

And that is where I will leave it at this time.

ONCE AGAIN NOW, ONE MORE TIME

July 26? I thought it was farther back than that!

I'm back. I'm conservative. And there will be quite a bit of political stuff coming on here. Be warned. If you don't like what I say, tough cookies. I'm also wordy. Be prepared to read a lot of lines. Again, your choice.


The summer is just about over. The wolves are out. Pressing hard upon every iota of every conservative candidate. The conservatives press back. And that infuriates the wolves. No. Not wolves, probably. More like jackals. Or maybe jackasses, as in the icon of their party.

Read a letter in the daily rag the other day that was praising old Bye Bye to the sky. Seems like he created the state and everything in it with his largess from the public treasury. Somehow it had a real hollow ring to it. But I persisted in reading the rest. And I could hardly believe it. The writer also said we should be thankful to Senator Kennedy, that white haired old--no I won't say it-- from somewhere up east. The one with the brain cancer. Why she was proud that his state's voters had returned him to the Senate for forty or so years. This despite his obvious errors in voting and his leaving Mary Jo at the bottom of Chappaquiddick Bay, no less. And yet he is a champion of the people? After waiting for some six or eight hours to tell anyone that she was there?


I saw and heard Mr. Er Ah Um Uh the other day when he was telling us that everyone should lay off Palin's family. No teleprompter, no notes, he had been well coached in what to say. Then the reporter asked a question. Yeah, classic Er Ah Um Uh again. Stuttering, fumbling, trying to think what he needed to say. Took him about two minutes to get out a seven or eight word sentence, and still sounded stupid when he finished it.


Experience keeps a dear school but a fool will learn in no other. Ben was right. The Democrats are in a feeding frenzy about Palin and her lack of experience (disregarding the other media frenzy about her family matters.) They cite her being mayor of a small town and her being governor for only slightly less than two years. So which town was either of their candidates the mayor of? So what states had either as its governor? Er Ah Um Uh says the fact that his campaign has over 2500 workers and a $30million monthly budget gives him vast managerial experience. Sure. When he is the front man, but his campaign managers do all the work. He is told what to do, when to do it by the managers, who also design and decide where ads will be shown, pay the staff, set up the appearances. And that makes him a good manager? That gives him experience? Horse hockey, to quote Colonel Potter!

He also has cited the fact that he was a community activist as experience. In what way did he gain executive experience? Maybe he showed others the proper way to use a stapler to post notices on telephone poles? Which, by the way, is an illegal activity in any jurisdiction in the country!

Oh, well. Pretty boy will drop from the high view in a couple of months and McCain can get on with running the country in a responsible manner--something Er Ah Um Uh could never do, and one which the majority of voters will prevent him from doing anyway. Hell, he will probably rejoin Rev. Wrongs church again.


I have been a regular participant on the HD forums this past summer. It has been interesting. I kept up a constant running gun battle with Jim Porter, along with a couple of his supporters and a few of my supporters. I finally signed off this week as there is no use trying to correct a stump that has only one song. Over and over. Incessantly. I characterized it as the song of a katydid--you know, irritating and constant, never varying, just irritating and constant. The only difference is that a katydid knows enough to shut up when the light of day and reason falls upon it. Porter doesn't.

Also have worked a lot on my family genealogy over the summer, adding some five thousand more people. I have been trying to include some individual histories to it. This takes a lot of time to do. Have done a lot of editing--making sure state designation for VA (WV) is consistent, chasing down birth dates, marriage dates, discovering what counties were included in Fincastle County, VA and Augusta County, VA--a lot of minutia.

I have done very little verse writing. The drive to get up and commit it to paper right then has not been there and it must be in order to retain it. Or even prose. Decided to stop the heavy work on Maple Creek until this winter, although I continue work on smaller segments.


But I am back. And will be making fairly regular entries. Some political, some personal, some outlandish, some not. But all just whatever hits me at the time I decide to do it.

And I must say that the layout of the Blogger setup is an improvement. And my profile looks skyrocketed while I was away. Who knows, may go higher now that they have something to read.

Hang on group. It'll be a helluva ride for a while. And your comments are encouraged!