Just more stuff

Solemnly pronounced on radio news the other day: “The federal government is facing a national obesity epidemic, a global financial crisis.  Now it’s trying to deal with the problem of school lunches.”

Aside from blinking at the underlying absurdities in this, I had to wonder if this was exactly the kind of lead line the news guys were using right before Noah’s flood.

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Also heard on the radio, but a while ago:  “. . .and don’t forget to make sure that clock is turned forward tonight!”  As if a clock needs help moving forward –

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A long, long time ago when Cam was just a little kid, I got him a flight simulator.  I think it was for the Atari.  Or probably not.  Probably for a Mac of some kind.  I thought it was going to be the coolest thing ever.  He didn’t like it.  “Come on,” I told him.  “What’s not to like?”  So I shoved him out of the way and started messing with it myself.

The problem was that the processor was just too slow.  You’d be flying along, and you’d try to bank left and drop a bit and nothing would happen.  So you push harder on the stick, and still nothing happens.  Pretty soon, you’re jammin’ on the stick, and suddenly the computer wakes up and executes all those “go left and drop a little bit” instructions at one time.  And your airplane turns into a grease smear on the face of the simulated planet.

I think the economy is like this.

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Did I mention that I like Puffs way better than toilet paper?

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I talked to a woman yesterday at craftconnection.com.  She was talking about the owner, how smart she is and what great timing she’s got.  Just before the election, the owner sat down and drafted out an Obama cross stitch or quilt pattern or something (I don’t think it was a stuffed animal) and put it up there on her store – and for a while, they just couldn’t keep them in stock.  

Then she paused.  “We’re not selling any of them now,” she said sadly.  And I thought, “Yeah, well that may have something to do with 890 billion of my dollars he’s spending.”

This morning, I was thinking about that.  About the bail-out thing, and the AIG bonuses.  I have AIG life  insurance, but from what I understand, by law, they’ve always had to keep a reserve to cover that.  So what, in the first place, do they need the money for?  And why are they taking bucks away from me to pay their execs over a mil in bonuses that I’d like to get myself, thank you very much?  You know what I could do with a nice 100K?  Besides pay lots and lots of taxes?   And I’m asking again – what’s the point of all this bail out milarky?

What if you just said, “You (fill in the manufacturer) people did lousy business.  This is what you get.  Fix it yourselves,”  and then just pay the unemployment for all the people who lose their jobs.  Pay for some re-education.  Throw up some WPA projects.  Wouldn’t that cost a whole lot less than just throwing money at people who’ve already proved they aren’t to be trusted with their own pocket change?

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Did I mention that I really like Puffs? And groaning?   And soda crackers?

 Okay.  I’m done now.  For now, I mean.  Done for now.