Ok, in my post last night, I said that I was curious what other opinions were on the bailout (now being called a rescue by much of mainstream media).  Today, I opened my email to find this link to Dave Ramsey’s website.  Well lol I guess I need to open my email more often, I’ve gotten 3 links to this site from 3 different people since Tuesday. Dave Ramsay’s Plan  As he is one of the financial gurus I trust, I really think he might have a good answer to what’s going on.

 I’ve said it before, I have to say it again.  Bernie Sanders is the most honest and straightforward person I know of in Congress.  No, he’s not the best public speaker (he constantly refers to his notes), but he makes a lot of sense and seems to be the one person in this whole deal that is remembering that Congress answers to US not the other way around.  Check out what he had to say about the bailout. 

 A dear friend of mine asked me to post again because he didn’t like the story about breastmilk in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Hehe 

So it looks like they may have passed a bailout bill finally.  They only had to work on it for about 1.5 weeks.  That’s not bad for our Congress, where everything has to be partisan.  After all, who cares what needs to be done, let’s vote along the party lines.  Bah! 

 I’ve been doing a lot of reading about whether we really need this bailout plan.  I’ve also been asking a lot of questions, and reading everything I can find on what’s going on.  My brother and his wife both work for WaMu.  I was worried about them when I heard about the buyout, but I’ve been told that they just have another employer right now.  Which is odd… a dear friend of mine works for Wachovia, which has also been bought out.  But apparently Citibank is getting rid of a lot of the jobs at Wachovia, whereas JP Morgan Chase is keeping a lot of the jobs at WaMu. 

What I’m confused about is how this bailout plan is going to help.  I mean it’s not going to do anything for the rising food and gas prices.  All it’ll do is help the companies that were so involved in this greed scam that they’ve been losing a lot of money with the foreclosures.  It’s not going to help those that were convinced that they needed a bigger loan than they could afford, or those that lost their jobs because of the slow down in house sales.  It seems more like it’s just going to help a few people in concentrated areas… like New York City.  It’s not going to help those who are losing their jobs because their employer was just bought out (like WaMu or Wachovia). 

I see several thoughts on this bailout.  Many people say that the bailout is going to cause the value of the dollar to drop even further.  That our currency is going to be in a free fall against all other currencies, which is going to cause an economic collapse, and that other countries are going to think that if we get too far into debt, we’ll just print money to get out, making the dollar even more worthless.  It’s possible… it even sounds plausible.  If you go to http://naturalnews.com they have a lot of speculation on this possibility.  The authors at Natural News also seem to think that both our government and big pharma are going to become obsolete once everything plays out.  They figure that people aren’t going to have the money to pay for their drugs, which means the pharmaceutical companies aren’t going to have an income.  They’ll be the next to go. 

Many others say that this bailout has to happen.  The world markets are in chaos over what is happening in the US.  (I do have a link, it’s on my other computer, I will try to copy it over tomorrow).  That’s a daunting thought.  We have to put ourselves further into debt because everything is so intertwined.  It’s possible a lot of other countries are going to have problems if we don’t do anything.  There’s no reason that the rest of the world should have to suffer,  just because a few – or a lot – of people in the US became greedy and wanted more than a simple modest return on their investments, or those who treated their houses like ATMs, or those who overspent what they could honestly afford and used the equity in their homes to cover their poor budgeting and credit card debt, or even those who cooked the company books to make it look like the company was earning better than they actually were.

Then there’s the portion that think that no matter what we do, we’re sunk.  We can put $700 billion into keeping these businesses afloat, but if you look at the 777 point drop in the Dow on Monday, that’s $1.1 trillion.  How much of a drop in the bucket is $700 billion?  Not much if you ask me.  Kinda like putting the US further into debt for a “stimulus package” that didn’t jump start the economy like the shrub said it would. 

I’ll admit, I don’t own my own home, my job isn’t affected by this whole situation, and gas prices here in OK are hovering around $3.15 as of yesterday.  The city I live in pretty much has a negative unemployment rate — if you want to work, you can find a job.  I was silly enough to check my 401(k), where I saw that the balance dropped $100 between last Wednesday and yesterday (Tuesday).  Today it was up about $40.  I guss that means I shouldn’t check it so often.  I’ve been tracking it the last few weeks by printing out the statement every Wednesday. 

According to the CEO of the company I work for, we aren’t even going to be affected by the economic “downturn.”  I’m not sure how much I believe him, if it gets too bad, people are going to stop eating out altogether, and more than half our business is to sell to companies like Sonic, or to small cafeterias like one of my brothers runs in Florida.  Basically, what the CEO said is that people are stepping down in the type of place they eat out.  If they used to eat out at upscale restaurants, they’ll step down to family dining types like Applebees, and so on.  He said that so far, it’s only the ones that could only afford to eat out at cheap or fast food type restaurants that have totally cut back on eating out at all.  I disagree, but that’s just from personal experience.  A year ago, we would eat out once a week at places like Applebees, now we don’t eat out at all if I can help it.  It’s just too much money to pay someone else for food that isn’t as good as homemade. 

So, if you go by the trickle down theory, the bailout plan is supposed to help all of us.  I haven’t yet figured out how, but am willing to hear suggestions on this.

PETA’s request for Ben & Jerry’s

So, apparently PETA is trying to convince Ben & Jerry’s to make their ice cream out of breast milk.  Umm I just have to say it… eww!

Don’t get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with breastfeeding your kids.  The thought of eating something made out of someone else’s breastmilk just does not appeal to me.  I had enough trouble dealing with my own when I was nursing my kids.  Plus, they’d have to have a lot more women pumping breastmilk than they do cows to keep up with the amount of milk they go through.  People just don’t produce the amount of milk that cows do. 

Both La Leche League (the breastfeeding advocacy group) and Ben & Jerry’s are against the suggestion, so I don’t see it happening.  They’d have to label the ice cream as made from breast milk, and I don’t see many people buying it.  Heck, some people have trouble buying mother’s milk soap.

Ok, so my ex would have a fit about this one.  My son sent me the following link to a website that has excerpts from the Colbert Report.

 http://www.hulu.com/watch/34640/the-colbert-report-the-word—how-dare-you

His comment was that if he could vote, he’d vote democrat (he’s 17, so another year yet).  Considering his father is a die hard republican, I think it’s hilarious.  The video is even funnier.  I sat there yelling at the screen while I was watching it.  I think I figured out McCain’s platform.  It’s not reform, it’s nothing other than he was a prisoner of war for 5+ years.  Hmm… not sure how that qualifies him for anything, and it seems to be his answer when he can’t figure out what else to say — that he was a POW, so he doesn’t know how many houses he has? 

 Gimme a break!  I may not be crazy about voting for Obama, but at least he’s not running on the platform that he was a POW for 5+ years.

Oh yea, and now that his rankings are slipping in the polls, he’s wanting to put off the debate so that he can grandstand about the economy and the economic bailout.  But how dare we question him?  Oh yea, and any comments about Palin are sexist.  WhatEVER.   

We’ve been seeing it coming.  All of the mortgage issues have compounded to where we don’t know what company is going to have problems next.  One of the political candidates finally admitted what the rest of us has known for awhile, our economy is in trouble.  But this isn’t really a political post.  McCain is just clueless, buffered from reality by his wife’s millions and 7 houses.  Oh yea, and surrounded by liars.

 I had a meeting last week with someone that was supposed to help me sort out my 401(k) and where I should have my money going.  I’ve been watching the balance do some odd things lately, it increases some with my contribution and my employer match, but I’m losing money.  The investment “professional” said I should keep my contributions going where they are.  That eventually I’d end up making up for the money I’m losing.  I hope so.  When I get a -6% interest rate, I start to worry. 

I also had a bit of a conversation with him about what has been going on.  I don’t remember all he said at this point, but he and I disagreed on many things including how long it was going to take for our economy to recover.  His feeling was that the mortgage mess is happening mostly because of greed.  I agree with that statement.  People were being too greedy, they weren’t thinking about how well they could afford the payments on their houses. 

However, not only were “normal” people being greedy, the companies and their CEO’s were being greedy.  How many of these bankrupt companies are paying their CEO’s multi-million dollar severance packages, or “golden parachutes”?  Yet they don’t have enough to stay in business.  The millions they’re paying their CEO’s would go a long way toward helping them get back on their feet.  Hmm…

 Then Bush wants to give Wall Street $700 billion with no strings attached, to “help” them to straighten things out.  Yea, I don’t see that giving them $700 billion with no strings attached is going to do much more than get us deeper in trouble.  I see the CEO’s with bigger golden parachutes, and more companies going bankrupt.  We need to make sure that the Democrats in congress actually have some say over what the money is going for.  We need strings attached.  We need to know that the money that is supposed to help straighten out the mess, is actually going to go to straighten out the mess. 

For the rest, well…. I see another 3 years of problems, but I may be wrong there.  I guess it depends on how the markets react to this newest bailout scheme. 

What I’ve been reading about Palin lately has seriously disturbed me, just not for the reasons that everyone would think.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with a lot of what she says.  I believe that abortion is a personal choice, and that our right to say what someone else can and cannot do stops at their personal bodies.  They have to answer to God for their choices and I have to answer to God for my choices.  I do NOT believe that Roe vs Wade should be overturned.  All that’ll happen there is that abortions will go back to where they were before this decision.  We will have people dying from illegal abortions.  Is that really where we want to be in the 20th century??   

However, I think it’s totally irrelevant to her parenting skills to say that her daughter is pregnant because she hasn’t paid enough attention to her family.  Umm no, teeange pregnancy happens, it’s a result of choices made by the teenager, not the parents.  It doesn’t make Sarah Palin less of a Christian.

I’ve read parts of the speech she gave at the Wasilla Assembly of God church.  I don’t agree with what she said about the mission in Iraq being part of God’s plan, or about the pipeline in Alaska being part of God’s plan.  What I disagree with the most is that she spoke as if she KNEW God’s plan instead of asking that people pray that God’s will be done. 

 I absolutely HATE that the media is talking as if she’s some sort of radical.  It’s difficult to get the whole transcript of the speech because the media just quotes the parts that they want to for sensationalism.  Unfortunately, because of the amount of traffic sent to the Wasilla church’s website, I cannot listen to the speech myself to determine how much was misquoted. 

 What makes me the most irritated though is the total jerks that are creeping out from under the rocks.  I’ve read comments on MSN and Newsvine that make my blood boil — not that that’s difficult when I’m pregnant.  I have little patience for sheer stupidity.  I grew up in an Assemblies of God church, as well as going to a Nazarene church, and a Baptist church.  I’ve seen them all.  I’ve gone to United Pentecostal churches, where I do not agree with everything they teach. 

Let me just get this off my chest now.  First, let me quote Wikipedia, “Snake handling is a religious ritual in a small number of Pentecostal churches” (emphasis mine).  Let me repeat: Not all Pentecostal churches are snake handling churches, and  Assemblies of God churches do not have snake handlers.

I seriously take exception to people assuming that all Christians are crazies who want to push their views on everyone else.  NONE of the churches I’ve ever attended have been like that.  Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I don’t do that.  I fully admit I’m not perfect, but you don’t have to be perfect to be Christian.  Christianity is believing in God, accepting that he died for your sins, and asking for his forgiveness.  It is not provoking war, it is not judging people.  Even Jesus said “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone ” (John 8:7 NIV).    It is also said in the Bible that we should not judge let we be judged by the same standard.  (Not a direct quote, if you’re curious, check Matthew 7:1-5 NIV).

Whether or not I agree with Palin on the anti-Semitic feelings of her church, or her pastor saying that if you disagree with Bush (or the pastor) you’re going to hell.. It irritates me that people think that THAT is what Christianity is like.  Umm no.  That’d be like me thinking that all Wiccans cast spells against those they don’t like.  I know better. 

Another taboo subject… politics.  I generally don’t talk much about it simply because it’s one of those things that gets people all riled up.  Politics and religeon. 

 I have to think though that McCain didn’t think through his choice of a Vice Presidential candidate.  I read somewhere that he only talked to her once before he offered her the slot.  A very dear friend of mine said Palin is being used and may find that this is the death of her career.  He may be right.

I’m still trying to figure it out.  McCain is trying to attract people who would have voted for Hilary Clinton.  That’s why he chose a woman as his VP candidate.  That could be true, BUT I think all he really locked in is the possibility of the NRA votes.  Palin is an avid hunter and fisherwoman.  Maybe the religeous right votes… she’s also anti-abortion.

Oops, she’s not going to lure any Clinton supporters being anti-abortion. 

Guess McCain’s people didn’t do enough research because Palin is also in the middle of an investigation into her conduct in firing someone because they wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex who was a state trooper.  Duh!  It’s scary enough to think of someone like her being one heartbeat away from the presidency.  I mean McCain is 72, if he’s elected, he’ll be the oldest president entering his first term.  Reagan was 69 when he was sworn in.  He turned 70 almost a month later. 

Ahh well, it’s still going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.  We’ll either have our first black president or our first female vice president by the time this all finishes.  I don’t think anyone is running under a 3rd party ticket.  Too bad, I still say Bernie should run for president! LOL

Wings restaurants soar despite economy

 I’m still looking for the article I read on MSN for my previous post.  But I had to comment on this article when I saw it.  We have 2 “real” wing restaurants in town, Buffalo Wiild Wings and Wings To Go.  Buffalo Wild Wings just opened actually, so my husband and I decided to try it out.  It was closer to this side of town than Wings To Go.

Big mistake.  First, it cost almost as much to go to Buffalo Wild Wings as it costs to take the whole family to Wings To Go.  Second, I don’t know if it’s an Oklahoma thing or what, but the wings tasted like black pepper, not wing sauce.  When I go to Wings To Go, I know that they’ll have plenty of sauce on the wings and that I won’t taste pepper.  Overall, my opinion: Price: 0, Food: 2, Service 5.  Our waitress was great at least. 

As for what it says in the article.  First, it just agrees with what I’ve been saying.  The company I work for is going to have some problems in the next couple of years.  People are not eating out as much, and most of what we sell is foodservice — to restaurants.  We do sell to schools and prisons, so it’s not going to slow down a whole lot.  BUT, with the rising costs of meat, the prices need to be passed on.  That’s only going to squeeze restaurant owners more, and the whole cycle is not going to be pretty. 

I was talking to a friend of mine tonight, and I honestly think our economy is going to spend at least the next couple of quarters resetting.  No one can make up their mind whether the economy is going into a recession or a depression.  Others reason that there’s still a small growth so we’re not in either.  But prices on food are jumping at unbelieveable levels, the last estimage for food was a 6% increase.  Normally, increases are along the lines of 2% from year to year.  So wages aren’t going up, and food prices are going up.  Sounds like a recession to me, but I’ll fully admit I’m no expert.

The economy is going to reset, and it’s going to be a buyers market again.  That’s the only thing that makes sense. 

I read an interesting article the other day, I’ll have to fnd the link for it later.  In the article, it stated that the discrepancy between mens wages and womens wages was closing.  They were saying that the real difference in wages between men and women was because women were not as well trained as men and were taking general labor jobs.  Now with more women getting degrees, the wage gap is supposedly closing.  

 When I was a web developer in Branson, I think I made as much as the one male coworker I had, though I know full well I didn’t make as much as my supervisor.  Then again, my supervisor had a graphic arts degree, was a damn good web designer, and could do more with Macromedia Flash and Adobe Photoshop than I can even now.  When I left there, I was a better web developer than anyone in the office other than him (my supervisor), but I still made the same as everyone else even though I was my supervisor’s back-up.

Fast forward to today.  Where I work, there’s a definite good ole boy attitude.  If you’re a guy, you have a family to support, so you need to make more than the women.  I’ve seen it several times in departments associated with mine. It has nothing to do with a degree, it has everything to do with your gender.

So, where are these cases where women are closing the salary gap?  In the bigger cities?  I know that just because I don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.  But I’m trying to figure out where the real world verification is for this article.

On Sunday, Alexander Solzhenitsyn died in his home in Moscow.  I was very sad to hear of this, though it sounds though he lived a full life.  He was 89 when he died.

I’ve mentioned it a couple of times to people and gotten blank looks.  Many people didn’t know who he was.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a Nobel prize winning author.  He wrote against Stalin’s regime, but his first book was not published until 1961 after Stalin died.

His book “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was semi-autobiographical, based in part on his time in a gulag in Siberia.  He actually wrote the story while in the gulag, memorizing it so that he would still have the story if it were found and confiscated.

 Solzhenitsyn was deported from the Soviet Union in the early ’70’s, and eventually moved to Cavendish, VT to live there for about 18 years.  I first found out about Solzhenitsyn when I was in high school.  My english teacher, Mr Keizer, mentioned him in passing during a class, and I asked him for more information — What can I say, it was before the Internet was more than a series of BBS’s centered around universities.  😛

 Solzhenitsyn’s book “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was a very memorable book.  It may not have been the most cheerful of books — after all, it was written about a man living in a Soviet Gulag — but it opened my eyes to some of the unfairness that still exists today.  Kinda like “Diary of Anne Frank” told about the unfairness that existed in the 40’s.  To me, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was ageless.  I didn’t realize that the book was set in the 50’s.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn spoke out against the decadence and democracy of the west.  He felt that what worked for America wouldn’t necessarily work all over the world, and wasn’t necessarily the best form of government. 

Whether or not we agreed with his political views, the world lost a very brilliant mind this week.  We all need to question everything and come up with our own ideas like he did.

 Nov 25: I had to turn off comments to this thread because of spam.