are we bailing out everyone?


I try and stay informed. I'm well read. But the loop-de-loops the economy and Wall Street are taking this past month is beyond my scope of knowledge. Not because I'm stupid, but because there are only so many things I can be knowledgeable about. I hire an accountant. Corporate types hire me to liven up their events or shill their product or pay me for my opinion in a fancy focus group.

But all of this. I KNOW we are getting reamed up the ass and hard. And I just don't have the tools to understand it. Bailout good? Bailout bad? I was not an econ major!
This is so much BS I can't even see straight. The past two months are putting me in the loony bin. How is Joe Nascar and Sally the Soccer Mom dealing with all of this? Are they just gazing at pictures of Jesus and Sarah Palin and not even worrying about it? They've got mortgages, credit cards that are about to be revoked (B of A is going to call home 60% of their credit cards. You are out of luck if your FICO is below 750) and their 401K just took a huge dump. They HAVE to be starting to sweat it.

Am I just giving in to the fear mongering? Has ANY of this affected me yet? Not really. Things are same old, same old here. Prices for basic things have gone up, gas of course, groceries, the utility bills have edged up, but they always edge up. Steve still has a job, though his 401K is nosediving. I'm still working as much as I have been since Dexter was born. Perhaps a few days NOT reading reddit or listening to NPR are in order.

I found my wallet the next morning out in the little compartment on the stroller's handle. The "remove from Dexter's grasp" did happen outside the house, and that was a terrible place to stash it, as it doesn't seem like it would fit, so I wouldn't think to look. In fact, I had checked the stroller first, and did gloss right over that little lid.

I should never look at the How-To Baby books. Invariably, he can't do one or two things in the "your baby should ABSOLUTELY be doing these things or call the doctor immediately" column, but yet can also do a bunch of things in the "your baby MAY be able to do this, but probably not" column.

I guess when they say "drink from a cup" they don't mean well, just that he can hold the cup, put it up to his mouth, tip it, get some liquid in his mouth and feel all proud. They don't mention that he'll try and drink from the wrong lip a couple of times first, dump most of the liquid out first and spill the rest of what doesn't go in his mouth down the front of his shirt.

I can't find my wallet and I'm ready to rip handfuls of hair from my scalp.

Today's task was to make 8 hours worth of work in 4 hours, mostly in Dexter's two hours of nap, and then deliver by 5pm. Needless to say, I was very focused to the task at hand, and somewhat panicked the entire time.

I somewhat remember Dexter getting my wallet out of the bag I had used this morning, and fishing it away from him immediately, misdirecting him to something else and ditching the wallet, while thinking, "this isn't good, you will never find it. KEEP SEWING!!!!!" When it was time to leave to deliver the costumes, I actually left the house without it, as I couldn't spare the time to look any harder than a cursory glance.

It is now 1 am. I have cleaned up and checked everywhere. Nothing. I'm wasting valuable sleeping/bathing/reading time frantically searching.

Did I just falsely remember taking it away from him at home? I do it so often, it's rote. Instead, did it fall out while walking home from breakfast? Will my head stop hurting?

I want to smash things.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Ad 2

here's the other one. my favorite part in both of them, is that the anti-HFCS person "can't remember" why the stuff is so bad.

If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were produced by The Onion and were parody ads. You can bet this just went into the comedy notebook!

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Ad 1

Check this out, and the next one. HFCS is "fine in moderation!" Where are the ads for smoking just a couple of cigarettes to go with it? When this cheap filler hit the market 20 years ago was the same time our society spiked in diabetes, obesity and super-sizing everything. It is less filling than cane sugar on a molecular level, and way cheaper to use. Bigger portions that leave you less satiated. Just more fodder for my Tin Foil Hat Rant of the last few weeks.

I've been out of commission the past few weeks, crafting my very special tin foil hat that I now need to wear since Sarah Palin was nominated. I cannot stop ranting and raving over the political situation. If they wanted to get people talking, the Mission Accomplished.

Thankfully, I had a gig with the Countess last Tuesday at The Echo as part of an variety show fundraiser. I was on the bill with a fantastic drag queen named Kay Sidilla and a very large woman who tap danced to AC/DC's Back in Black. The Countess held her own and totally killed with a 5 minute rant about politics, with a little Michael Phelps thrown in for good measure. A late summer round-up, if you will. Did I get it on video? Of course not. Sigh.

I think the collective rage people are feeling stems from a feeling of helplessness about the entire situation. We see things going terribly wrong and only getting worse by the day, but yet the people in charge keep saying everything is okay. We've tried to elect candidates that we believe in, yet they don't win, even though they seem to get enough votes. A very vocal and organized faction is dictating to us what is best for us, but we don't believe in their morals and they don't want us to believe in ours. People are at a breaking point. I never want to see Elizabeth Hasselbeck's face ever again, I'm so filled with hate for her.

With Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch taking a nose dive over the weekend, I was astounded to hear McCain say everything was ok this morning. Forget about AIG today and the market taking a 500 point dive. That his handlers were spouting the party line after even just the weekend's announcements is insane.

And yet, Red State Nation is still gung ho. Do they just not understand?

It was actually weirdly thrilling to see clips of the Sarah Palin/Charles Gibson(?) interview. I wonder if it would actually put fear into our enemies that we would purposefully elect a crazy person to be president. This is a crusade for her. For Reals. Like the Crusades in the Middle Ages. And she is willing to die, and for all of us to die, because we can all be together in the Kingdom of Heaven for doing the righteous thing. That whole thing about not blinking. She is NOT going to blink. She is a Christian Warrior. Her God is better than Their God, and Her God is Our God, because She is An American. This is what my tin foil hat is for. When this stuff starts to sound almost plausible. Fighting crazy extremists with crazy extremists. I just might work!!! Except it hasn't in the past 8 years. But Bush and Cheney weren't CRAZY like this broad is! They are a lot of things, but crazy ain't it.

Maybe that should be the GOP slogan. We're Just That Crazy. We Don't Blink.

Hat!!!!! Foil hat!!!!!!!

Every day it is something new. I get a whole thing to blog about, and then the next day something new and better comes up. I've exerted enough energy over this that it feels like three months, not less than three weeks.