Buy American

How does an economy grow?
By passing dollars around. Not by sending them overseas. Exports go overseas. Buy American. Boycott businesses that are building foreign economies. Buy American.
Don't worry about American goods being more expensive; with the declining value of the dollar, with the American standard of living declining (ie. the elimination of the middle class), with the third world wages our manufacturers will be paying us, American goods will be cheap. So will American services. Remember, the more desperate people are for the basic necessities of life, the more willing they are to do more for less. 'Money' would like to see everybody desperate.
When you buy American, you contribute to your country, your fellow American citizen, the future of human rights, and the continuing fight for freedom from the 1% of the worlds population who control 80% of the worlds wealth.
So, why hasn't your new President, ObamaMan, once dictated to the American people to buy American? If Americans had spent the half a trillion in America that we owe China, well, where would we be? But ObamaMan can't do that because Americans have been sold out: Americans were sold the idea of "world markets" for American products, they weren't told that the products would be manufactured wherever labor was cheapest, and American labor would have to compete on that 'desperate' world level. Good for money. Good for poor, desperate people. Bad for America as a nation. It's like volunteering to lower our standard of living to that of the rest of the world.
ObamaMan would like you to believe a stimulus package can change this. I say, "nothing is going to save us." Especially repeating the same polices (overspending and borrowing) that created the problem.

Bring home the Troops.
Develop new energy sources.
Buy American.
Boycott contributing to overseas economies by boycotting companies that outsource American jobs.

Bite the Bullet. We don't need a special commission to figure this out, but we may need a REVOLUTION.

Grand Theft Auto 4

Coinciding with oil reaching another record high of $123 a barrel today, the new video game 'Grand Theft Auto 4' generates $500 million in sales in it's first 1/2 week. That's half a BILLION in three and a half days in video game sales.
At the same time Myamar loses 100 thousand plus people in a cyclone (hurricane), and a good portion of Asia's rice crop is destroyed or threatened, unfotunately and coincidently, the week after experts predict world food shortages. Yet there is still $500,000,000 paid for this one new video game in 3 and a 1/2 days worth of sales. I underline this point because I wonder what the total game sales will in a week, month, year?
Now, I'm no Reverend Wright, and I won't claim to know anything about the divine plan, or how God really thinks. I'm not even going to claim there is a GOD, but supposing there is... then what the hell would you guess the Almighty is going to think upon her appraisal of the current state of affairs: "Things can't be that damn bad" or "How bad can it get"? Might depend on how many shares of Microsoft God owns.
Half a billion in retail sales has to be good for the stimulus package. Let me do a little research on that game and see if the money is going to China....
And just back from Google... Xbox is Microsoft. There you are; the rich get richer. And using theological criteria of appraisal for logic, God has to own a piece of Microsoft, otherwise no way in hell they could have that kind of success. Anyway, if the world falls apart, Americans don't think they care. They're stealing cars on the computer, and getting life's lessons from the perverted wisdom of Wall Street, graphic designers and the thrills of cyberspace.
What are life's lessons? I would guess for every life they are different. In America, where the vast majority of the now living population did not experience the Great Depression, where Baby Boomers have lived their entire lives in what, for the most part, was the expanding economy of the richest nation on earth, the lessons of life already learned may not apply to the world of the future. A world with a shrinking economy and the comforts and luxuries of yesteryear gone.
In a shrinking world, new lessons of life may be necessary to learn and, for Americans, it won't be easy. A world where property depreciates and today's pleasures can't be paid for with tommorrow's equity. How the hell are Americans going to pay for all those $35K SUVs, and put gas into them all $5 a gallon, if we can't refinance our homes every 3 to 5 years? That's why SUV sales are down in the billions and my Jeep has 235 thousand miles. Lessons learned.
A world where people go hungry. Everybody I know that has ever 'starved', afterward they could never be rich enough. Being hungry for food to sustain life, survive, must leave a long and lasting impression/fear. Today's native born Americans, for the most part, have never known real hunger. And the mass production of food depends on fuel and petrol chemicals and the weather. Absurd, Americans hungry! Not in our lifetimes. Hopefully.
Furthermore, in America (in our lifetimes) opportunity has always been available. Why save, just go make more money. Buy it on credit, pay for it with future money. Future money may not be available in the future. Opportunity may disappear. If you can't afford it now, forget it. Learn the value of a dollar and save. Damn, am I talking to the past, or what? I'm talking to the future, too. Too bad I can't afford to save. Anyway, I just thought the juxtaposition of current world conditions and video sales might explain why I think when the Almighty shows up she might be a little bitchy. Half a billion dollars. I wish I could afford that game and see what I'm missing.

This Afternoon's Newscasts

Yesterday I watched three grey mule deer wander across my driveway. There was frost on the ground and the morning was cold. Where they stopped to graze a little is the first part of the hill to get sun. I'm sure they wanted to sun bathe as much as eat. Serene, natural and then the rest of the world....
I see the authorities in Aruba have arrested the suspected three again in the case of Natalie Hollaway. If they murdered that girl it is important they be punished.
The Hollaway story followed the story of the New York Jets fans who are encouraging women to bare their breasts as they pass by a certain section of the stadium. The boys are having a rollicking good time, but the more reserved women (probably 95% of the total encouraged to titillate the crowd) find it anything but 'fun.'
And then there is the really twisted story that preceded the aforementioned two; the story of the woman in Saudi Arabia who was abducted in public with her male companion, raped by seven men, and then found to be in the wrong because her companion was not a relative! She was additionally punished, sentenced to ninety lashings and six months in jail. When her attorney appealed the lashings were increased to two hundred (for disrespecting the court) and the attorney was fined and suspended.
Why does the juxtaposition of the three stories interest me? They are related not only because of the 'base' instincts that fuel the three, but also because of the manners in which they are received, interpreted, and reacted to by the different cultures involved. I try to see things objectively. I try to be fair. I like to put things on the line of truth and force myself to be honest. However, when something is twisted, when reason has been tweaked, then I don't mind saying, "This is fucked up." And this is indicative of what kind of fucked up, backward, assholes are in charge of the Arab world.
The girl was punished for having the 'wrong' escort in public? This leads me to believe that improperly escorted Arab women can be treated in any fashion, and then turned over to the police for 'justice.' Why did she need an escort at all? Are Arab men such animals that every unattended women is in danger? Why a family escort? Is there a law against RAPE in front of the family?
The reasoning behind the whole Saudi thing dumbfounds me. It is about as civilized as the cartoon caveman dragging his woman back to the cave. Which is about the equivalent of raping and murdering a teenage girl. Which is what the Hollaway case is about. It would be the equivalent of the Saudi Case too if the murder had not taken place, and there had been four more rapists and Natalie Hollaway was alive so we could punish her!
Did I say how fucked up this is? Aruba wants the case solved. It taints their image and hurts the tourist industry. Natalie's body is not to be found. Americans empathize with her mother. But the case in Saudi Arabia? ...The logic, reason, and fairness of it is incredulous. Caveman law, based on twisted interpretation of archaic religious laws. Kind of like Football Fan Conduct based on twisted interpretation of what is acceptable behavior when you're with the boys and 'just having fun.' Dumb people shouldn't drink, it makes them even more stupid.

Happy Birthday today Son. I hope your world is safe and stable and you are Happy.