I think most moderate,intelligent folks are starting to come to the conclusion that our venerable "News Media" has a great of deal of blame for our present economic problems. Just to be clear, I mean ALL the news sources in America. Not just the "Main stream" media, that the extreme right wing always complain about being too "slanted". They all have a certain agenda they believe is the truth.
What I'm talking about now is the extreme negative crap they all continually pump out in the name of "news". Everyone I talk to are starting to get sick and tired of being told over and over again the fact that we are now experiencing a "temporary" economic downturn. The truth is we've had these something like 20 times since the "great depression" so long ago. Guess what folks? Even that one and everyone since eventually resolves itself one way or another. With or without government help, even the supposed experts have not resolved.
What I'm proposing is that the News Media be held liable for their actions. Under the guise of just presenting the news, they are plainly causing people to become and stay afraid much longer than they should. I'm saying that fear they are promoting in every news cast is now a major cause of our problems.
When we the people are afraid because we are told to be afraid by them daily, we all hunker down, pull in our heads like turtles and stop spending money. Even in normal, responsible ways, not just frivolously. So, when we stop taking our families out to eat, the restaurants start laying off employees, until finally they have to close their doors because we no longer give them our business. When we stop buying cloths, appliances, hardware and all the other necessities of life, all those stores go through the same cutting back and eventually closing up because of our actions. Of course the side effect of all this is larger unemployment for the people.
We are the largest percentage of the problem here folks. There are other obvious factors here but the truth is this whole thing is mostly our own fault. Again I think most intelligent moderate thinking people know this fact instinctually but we're all caught up in this giant fear thing the news media is promoting daily.
Some caught up in this same bullshit will say: "but we are all broke right now and can't afford to start spending again". With a 10% jobless rate, that means 90% are doing fine, making the same money as before this whole debacle started, so that's just another fear nonsense we are all falling for.
So my conclusion here is it's time for us to demand the news media take responsibility for their actions and start trying to actually help the situation instead of causing the problems they are creating. I'm mostly talking about the "main stream" media here because all the extreme sources really only have an extreme right or left wing base, which I think are a meaningless, negative, cancer on society, minority in this great country we live in.
How do we do that? How in the hell should I know? I'm just a dumb barber after all. Do any of you reading this know of some way to get their attention with these facts? I just think it's time something happens to wake them up to their very large share of blame right now. They all claim they behave responsibly on our behalf. Well, lets see them prove it with solid actions.
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
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Come on.......DO IT!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
One hell of a division in our country
I guess it's always been this way but I have to bring up a subject that is glaringly obvious in the last few years. With our two party system, it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly wide the political gap is here in America.
The wild part about that to me is people of both sides are mostly intelligent, caring and thoughtful people who would make wonderful neighbors but how to run and handle our country, they might as well be from Mars on one side and Jupiter on the other, as far as the extremes on both sides act.
Let's sum up the two extremes if I can.
The extreme left side only cares for the poor and the hell with the rich. They're rich for Christ sake, why in the hell should we concern ourselves about people who sure in the hell don't need our help, especially about money. The only things that matter are how can we as a concerned, loving people help the less fortunate among us? How can we raise the standard of living for them to at least livable standards? They would very much love to see some kind of world government, where everyone is equal, with equal rights for all. Also, they welcome everyone from all the poor countries to move to America and receive everything we have here freely. They don't seem to care if they speak english or even work. We should just take care of them out of human compassion. We should pay them welfare and take care of all their medical needs free.
They see a nation where the rich just keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, with the middle class slowly disappearing until there are just a few super rich living up on the hill and the rest of the super poor living in the gutters and eating from the dumps, like most third world countries now seem to be. They see big business and the rich as the enemies of caring, regular people, with a main focus on greed as their moving force.
Now the extreme right thinks business is everything and can do no wrong. They think we should just leave them completely alone and they will not only take care of themselves but in the process provide our economy with everything it needs and deserves. Never, ever raise taxes on business or impede it in any way. The basic idea was business would never hurt itself so leave it alone. The same thing would apply to all rich people. They got where they are by their own initiative, blood, sweat and tears and deserve everything they earned the hard way.
They think all those "poor people" should just go out and get a job and pull themselves up by the boot straps or they deserve to just starve to death.
Government does not owe anyone anything and should not have to pay one cent to help anyone who doesn't help themselves. All the people asking for our government to help out are communist, socialist pigs and can just go to hell as far as they are concerned. They also espouse a philosophy right now that we are at the end of the road in America and probably will just fail completely, including some kind of civil war to bring the country back to where it belongs. They are staking up supplies, guns and Ammo for just such a scenario. In fact, I think it's safe to say they welcome this with open arms.
I tried to put my limited ideas about both EXTREMES purposely exaggerated here and am probably not portraying them very accurately or fairly at all. The thing that I do notice though in normal intelligent, thoughtful people I meet in my life, is most people by far fall somewhere in the middle of all that garbage and very scary philosophies. They do care for the less fortunate people and do try and help sometimes in ways they can but definitely don't think anyone should just be handed anything on a silver platter. They have to show some desire to help themselves. They realise that the best and probably only real way to help would be to teach them to help themselves.
They also know that business is the backbone and reality behind our financial system here in America but also realize that business has lately turned the whole purpose from one of Pride, Quality and Honor to something that has slipped into pretty much just plain greed. Knowing this truth, they see the need to go back to some rules of the road that our government needs to set up and enforce to keep business on a straight, level and logical path. A path that would at least take into account the needs of regular working, responsible folks. I think it's pretty plain to most regular, intelligent folks that greed by all of us has brought our country TEMPORARILY to it's knees right now.
They also know without a doubt that this whole thing will pass and we will be just fine in the long run, just as we have survived all the other recessions and even the Great Depression of so long ago. They face whatever comes with strength and resolve and above all else a large helping of hope for the future and wish nothing but the best for our new president with all the inherited problems he faces. Most people of the world face the truth that this economic mess is not in any way the new American president's fault. It is a world wide problem, with the entire worlds leaders and economic experts trying their best to solve anyway they can. It's unprecedented nature obviously calls for completely unprecedented fixes and same as our president, they are all trying everything they can, to at least slow the burn before it takes the financial world to a place that is unrecoverable. The nut-case ideas that we need to do nothing is irresponsible to the extreme and no intelligent economist in the world believes that insane philosophy has any place in this new unprecedented financial failure we find ourselves in.
The thing about all this extreme divisiveness is it does nothing whatsoever to help us in any way. It's about as far away from real answers to our many problems as can be. In fact, I would say it is like a cancer eating away at our collective democratic thinking.
These extremist on both sides need to stop watching the extremist news and listening to all the nut-case radio crazies and get a life. These talking heads only react to news in negitive ways and offer nothing whatsoever as far as any real answers. They are all just getting rich off of the extremist philosopies and laughing all the way to the bank for sure. There is far more to life than politics. It is important for sure but it is but a very small portion of what should be important to normal people.
Another important conclusion I've came to lately after listening to all the crap is all of our individual thoughts about all this is plain bullshit. We all have these ideas we think are the truth and it's just opinions folks, not some kind of grand reality. I include all my lofty ideas in that same bullshit soup. Right or wrong, most nations and countries of the world hire or vote in people they believe are capable of handling all the issues. At that point, we all need to trust in whatever system we voted in and let them do their jobs to the best of their ability. When we think their not doing that to our liking, then it's time to fire or vote them out, during the next election.
So play with your children, plant a garden, read books (plural!), fix your home, talk to your mate, take a trip, talk to your neighbors, take dance lessons, volunteer at some good cause, go out to eat, join a club, find something to laugh at. Doctors have made it clear that laughter is good for you and stress could not be worse for you. Stay in the moment, because most of our moments when we're not blabbing about political bullshit could not be more perfect. Beautiful weather, great place to live and love.
I know for sure that I'm going to get a bunch of "Paul, paul, you're living in a dream world". Well, you know what? I choose that willingly and I'll take that dream world with me to my dying days with pride and a healthy helping of happiness it gives me, while all the doom and gloom crowd run around like a bunch of old grumpy nuts, holding a sign that says "The end is near!" as normal folks walk on the other side of the street and protect their children from the nuts.
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR......I'll take my dream world over the Doom and Gloomer's dream world gladly, any day.
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
The wild part about that to me is people of both sides are mostly intelligent, caring and thoughtful people who would make wonderful neighbors but how to run and handle our country, they might as well be from Mars on one side and Jupiter on the other, as far as the extremes on both sides act.
Let's sum up the two extremes if I can.
The extreme left side only cares for the poor and the hell with the rich. They're rich for Christ sake, why in the hell should we concern ourselves about people who sure in the hell don't need our help, especially about money. The only things that matter are how can we as a concerned, loving people help the less fortunate among us? How can we raise the standard of living for them to at least livable standards? They would very much love to see some kind of world government, where everyone is equal, with equal rights for all. Also, they welcome everyone from all the poor countries to move to America and receive everything we have here freely. They don't seem to care if they speak english or even work. We should just take care of them out of human compassion. We should pay them welfare and take care of all their medical needs free.
They see a nation where the rich just keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, with the middle class slowly disappearing until there are just a few super rich living up on the hill and the rest of the super poor living in the gutters and eating from the dumps, like most third world countries now seem to be. They see big business and the rich as the enemies of caring, regular people, with a main focus on greed as their moving force.
Now the extreme right thinks business is everything and can do no wrong. They think we should just leave them completely alone and they will not only take care of themselves but in the process provide our economy with everything it needs and deserves. Never, ever raise taxes on business or impede it in any way. The basic idea was business would never hurt itself so leave it alone. The same thing would apply to all rich people. They got where they are by their own initiative, blood, sweat and tears and deserve everything they earned the hard way.
They think all those "poor people" should just go out and get a job and pull themselves up by the boot straps or they deserve to just starve to death.
Government does not owe anyone anything and should not have to pay one cent to help anyone who doesn't help themselves. All the people asking for our government to help out are communist, socialist pigs and can just go to hell as far as they are concerned. They also espouse a philosophy right now that we are at the end of the road in America and probably will just fail completely, including some kind of civil war to bring the country back to where it belongs. They are staking up supplies, guns and Ammo for just such a scenario. In fact, I think it's safe to say they welcome this with open arms.
I tried to put my limited ideas about both EXTREMES purposely exaggerated here and am probably not portraying them very accurately or fairly at all. The thing that I do notice though in normal intelligent, thoughtful people I meet in my life, is most people by far fall somewhere in the middle of all that garbage and very scary philosophies. They do care for the less fortunate people and do try and help sometimes in ways they can but definitely don't think anyone should just be handed anything on a silver platter. They have to show some desire to help themselves. They realise that the best and probably only real way to help would be to teach them to help themselves.
They also know that business is the backbone and reality behind our financial system here in America but also realize that business has lately turned the whole purpose from one of Pride, Quality and Honor to something that has slipped into pretty much just plain greed. Knowing this truth, they see the need to go back to some rules of the road that our government needs to set up and enforce to keep business on a straight, level and logical path. A path that would at least take into account the needs of regular working, responsible folks. I think it's pretty plain to most regular, intelligent folks that greed by all of us has brought our country TEMPORARILY to it's knees right now.
They also know without a doubt that this whole thing will pass and we will be just fine in the long run, just as we have survived all the other recessions and even the Great Depression of so long ago. They face whatever comes with strength and resolve and above all else a large helping of hope for the future and wish nothing but the best for our new president with all the inherited problems he faces. Most people of the world face the truth that this economic mess is not in any way the new American president's fault. It is a world wide problem, with the entire worlds leaders and economic experts trying their best to solve anyway they can. It's unprecedented nature obviously calls for completely unprecedented fixes and same as our president, they are all trying everything they can, to at least slow the burn before it takes the financial world to a place that is unrecoverable. The nut-case ideas that we need to do nothing is irresponsible to the extreme and no intelligent economist in the world believes that insane philosophy has any place in this new unprecedented financial failure we find ourselves in.
The thing about all this extreme divisiveness is it does nothing whatsoever to help us in any way. It's about as far away from real answers to our many problems as can be. In fact, I would say it is like a cancer eating away at our collective democratic thinking.
These extremist on both sides need to stop watching the extremist news and listening to all the nut-case radio crazies and get a life. These talking heads only react to news in negitive ways and offer nothing whatsoever as far as any real answers. They are all just getting rich off of the extremist philosopies and laughing all the way to the bank for sure. There is far more to life than politics. It is important for sure but it is but a very small portion of what should be important to normal people.
Another important conclusion I've came to lately after listening to all the crap is all of our individual thoughts about all this is plain bullshit. We all have these ideas we think are the truth and it's just opinions folks, not some kind of grand reality. I include all my lofty ideas in that same bullshit soup. Right or wrong, most nations and countries of the world hire or vote in people they believe are capable of handling all the issues. At that point, we all need to trust in whatever system we voted in and let them do their jobs to the best of their ability. When we think their not doing that to our liking, then it's time to fire or vote them out, during the next election.
So play with your children, plant a garden, read books (plural!), fix your home, talk to your mate, take a trip, talk to your neighbors, take dance lessons, volunteer at some good cause, go out to eat, join a club, find something to laugh at. Doctors have made it clear that laughter is good for you and stress could not be worse for you. Stay in the moment, because most of our moments when we're not blabbing about political bullshit could not be more perfect. Beautiful weather, great place to live and love.
I know for sure that I'm going to get a bunch of "Paul, paul, you're living in a dream world". Well, you know what? I choose that willingly and I'll take that dream world with me to my dying days with pride and a healthy helping of happiness it gives me, while all the doom and gloom crowd run around like a bunch of old grumpy nuts, holding a sign that says "The end is near!" as normal folks walk on the other side of the street and protect their children from the nuts.
LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR......I'll take my dream world over the Doom and Gloomer's dream world gladly, any day.
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
These are the best of times
Ok, I'm going to step out on the old proverbial limb here and state that the "interesting" times we now find ourselves in might just be the best thing to happen to America, perhaps forever.
We have been living a false, fake, you can have everything you want in life existence, for far too long now and obviously the rooster decided to come home to roost. With the invention of the devil in disguise called "credit", by greedy businesses called "credit card companies" and "Banks", we all decided we could have whatever we want and just pay for it later. Greed is the key word here. The Banks saw our greed and naturally took advantage of it because that's what they do. They have one thing in mind and that's make as much money as the idiots (us) will let them have.
So, now it's time for some cold hard facts.
We don't need a Starbucks, HomeDepot, Sears, Gottchalks, Car Dealers,ect ect on every corner. We don't need $300.00 Sneakers, $400.00 Levy's and a new cool sports car every 3 years.
With our new found fiscal realities we are going to have to live like Americans used to live. Within our means. Oh my god, how novel huh? We as people and the whole Nation are going to have to go back to living within our means. It's real simple folks. YOU CANNOT SPEND MORE THAN YOU MAKE.
So being broke as people and as a nation temporally, as we now are is actually a great thing. Now we can go back to saying things like: "Gee, that sounds nice but we can't afford it", just like our forefathers most certainly did. If they needed something, they saved for it, THEN bought it using the cash they saved.
So my wish, desire and hope is the conditions we find ourselves in now is going to force change in our behavior and the behavior of our politicians too.
Now having said all this, we have to realize that we are in a financial emergency right now and the answers do involve some temporary heavy emergency spending just to save our asses. When everything is back to some stability, we can then start taking measures to pay back the borrowing we need to do to make that happen. When our ecomomy is back to normal, money will start flowing into our debt also as it always has before.
Enough with the hard news. It's time to start thinking positivly about all this. With a 10% jobless rate, that means 90% percent of us are still working and doing fine. We have to stop paying attention to all the "Doom and Gloom" idiots and realize everything WILL BE OK. These things have happened something like 20 times since the "great Depression" and we have and always will come out in the end just fine.
We are still and will remain the best nation in the world and we as citizens enjoy the highest level of living of all. Most of us by far have well fed, comfortable, happy lives compared to the majority of the world and we need to re-remind ourselves of these truths right now. By most other third world countries standard of living everyone of us, including our poorest citizens are filthy rich.
Also, most people realize that most of the store closings ect are our fault. Because of all the negative news, we all pulled into our shells like turtles and are hiding. Well guess what? We need to start slowly acting normal again and take your family out to eat, so the restaurants can stay open. We need to slowly start buying what we need (need, not want) again to make sure honest, real commerce can get back on it's feet and hire back those who lost their jobs.
Above all else............STOP WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THE DOOMSAYERS! Those talking heads are idiots.
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
We have been living a false, fake, you can have everything you want in life existence, for far too long now and obviously the rooster decided to come home to roost. With the invention of the devil in disguise called "credit", by greedy businesses called "credit card companies" and "Banks", we all decided we could have whatever we want and just pay for it later. Greed is the key word here. The Banks saw our greed and naturally took advantage of it because that's what they do. They have one thing in mind and that's make as much money as the idiots (us) will let them have.
So, now it's time for some cold hard facts.
We don't need a Starbucks, HomeDepot, Sears, Gottchalks, Car Dealers,ect ect on every corner. We don't need $300.00 Sneakers, $400.00 Levy's and a new cool sports car every 3 years.
With our new found fiscal realities we are going to have to live like Americans used to live. Within our means. Oh my god, how novel huh? We as people and the whole Nation are going to have to go back to living within our means. It's real simple folks. YOU CANNOT SPEND MORE THAN YOU MAKE.
So being broke as people and as a nation temporally, as we now are is actually a great thing. Now we can go back to saying things like: "Gee, that sounds nice but we can't afford it", just like our forefathers most certainly did. If they needed something, they saved for it, THEN bought it using the cash they saved.
So my wish, desire and hope is the conditions we find ourselves in now is going to force change in our behavior and the behavior of our politicians too.
Now having said all this, we have to realize that we are in a financial emergency right now and the answers do involve some temporary heavy emergency spending just to save our asses. When everything is back to some stability, we can then start taking measures to pay back the borrowing we need to do to make that happen. When our ecomomy is back to normal, money will start flowing into our debt also as it always has before.
Enough with the hard news. It's time to start thinking positivly about all this. With a 10% jobless rate, that means 90% percent of us are still working and doing fine. We have to stop paying attention to all the "Doom and Gloom" idiots and realize everything WILL BE OK. These things have happened something like 20 times since the "great Depression" and we have and always will come out in the end just fine.
We are still and will remain the best nation in the world and we as citizens enjoy the highest level of living of all. Most of us by far have well fed, comfortable, happy lives compared to the majority of the world and we need to re-remind ourselves of these truths right now. By most other third world countries standard of living everyone of us, including our poorest citizens are filthy rich.
Also, most people realize that most of the store closings ect are our fault. Because of all the negative news, we all pulled into our shells like turtles and are hiding. Well guess what? We need to start slowly acting normal again and take your family out to eat, so the restaurants can stay open. We need to slowly start buying what we need (need, not want) again to make sure honest, real commerce can get back on it's feet and hire back those who lost their jobs.
Above all else............STOP WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THE DOOMSAYERS! Those talking heads are idiots.
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by clicking in the circle beside "Name/URL". Or just leave your comment anonymously by clicking on the circle beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
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