Saturday, March 7, 2009

Saturday Round-Up


For the Saturday Round-up, another gratuitous hunk picture - Hugh Laurie.

Blogging may be light today as I am off to purchase a new router. My router has been dropping signals for a few weeks now and I've tried all troubleshooting tips I can find to no avail. So, off to big box store for new one.

The yard is begging to be mowed.

My mother is having a horrible vertigo attack today and I need to be over there instead of in front of my computer.

My house is covered in dust. My carpets need to be cleaned.

So much to do!

Political news this week has been grim; I'm sensing a growing unease with our president, but some would say that it's just what I'm choosing to read that makes me feel that way. I know that I personally have a growing unease - and yes, I've been uneasy from the beginning, so this is not news.

But, my mother received a letter this week from a relative who is from Britain and had lived most of her life in Argentina. She's been living in America for a large part of her adult life, married to my Dad's cousin. I couldn't tell you how old she is, but she's a mature, older lady. In her letter she expressed unease about Obama and said "it seems as if he will wreck this country if he is able to do all that he is promising to do" and then went on to say that "he is a wonderful speaker but when he speaks to the crowds he reminds me of our South American dictators in his tone and arrogance."

As far as this week's debacles go, the Charles Freeman thing is most troubling and I can't believe that the administration would think this guy is okay. How can they overlook these issues that come with Freeman? Thus the arrogance - it's a "we don't care what you think" attitude; it's not a Senate confirmed position anyway and we can do what we want. "We won." Arrogance.

The stock market is still nervous about Obama's plans. You can't blame the stock market on George Bush as the market looks forward, not backward. Obama's plans will increase the cost of living on all the middle class. Energy costs are going to increase some 40% if the cap and trade policy goes through as planned. That will more than eat up the $13 (then $7) per week increase the middle class will get. Of course, you realize, the tax tables aren't going to be revised and so you will eventually pay taxes on that little increase, which negates the whole thing yet again.

I can't think about this now; I have to go buy a router now and stimulate the economy a little bit!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If i ever came onto this blog and suggested that Bush was a war criminal or dictator, would you put up with it? I can't imagine.

South American dictators? And in your next post you invoke Hitler and Hussein? Its tacky and deplorable rhetoric like this which undermines your apparent desire to honestly and "nicely" debate issues. Why would you continue to post such vile suggestions?

If this fear honestly exists, I'd really like for anyone on this blog to explain their fear that Obama has desires to be a dictator. Please, i'm asking out of honest curiosity, because if this fear does not truly exist then posts comparing Obama to dictators appears to be nothing more than anger and shameful divisive talk.

Now, if we want to debate one of your points. The stock market is still nervous about Obama's plans. You can't blame the stock market on George Bush as the market looks forward, not backward. Is the stock market responding to Obama's plans, or the economy in general? The market has been dropping since its high in Oct 2007. That's 15 months of falling stocks before Obama even took the oath of office. So, i'd propose that this is the continuation of a market trend, not a response to policy.

If you were to stick with the idea that the market is responding to the future effect ("looking forward") of the President's policies on the economy, then how would you explain the last major market downturn? January 1, 2001 Bush takes office with the market at 10,587. After 18 months in office, the market closes on Oct 9 2002 at 7,286.

Fact is, it wasn't Bush's fault. The market was prime for a correction (downturn) when Bush took office, so he just came in at the wrong time. Similarly, but at a much more severe scale, Obama steps into a market in freefall. There's NO policy that would cause the markets to suddenly reverse trend overnight.

Pat Austin Becker said...

I did not say that Obama wants to be a dictator. I was commenting on the billboard, the installation of which I clearly said he was not behind.

I was speaking more to the adoration and idolatry of the man himself.