October 2008 Archives

After reading the headline in the BBC today "Recession fears drag shares lower" I had to post.

The word "recession" is equal to the word "terrorist" in causing fear/anxiety but unlike "terrorist" is a word the politicians are afraid to actually say. If you look back at how many times the president and everyone else used the word terrorist vs recession the result would most likely be something like 1 billion to zero.

Instead, they simply changed the vocabulary to "slow down."

To add insult to injury Bush/McCain keep telling us "the Economic situation is stable," while the President keeps telling us everything is ok while all hell has broken loose. The DJI has lost a quarter of it's value, the housing/credit markets are in shambles, unemployment keeps rising, people have lost a good chunk of their retirement savings and so on and so on. Further, private banking institutions have been bailed out with public money to the tune of a zillion dollars which makes a mockery of our "Capitalist System," yet EVERYTHING IS JUST DANDY!!!???

As if anything the President says holds any weight anymore. Why does he even bother making such stupid statements? It seems to have the opposite effect!!!! Just yesterday the headline was "President reassures Americans on the economy," and today the DJI loses 300 points!! Mr. President,,, please HUSH!!

We have had Capitalism drilled into our brains ever since we were born. Now, with banks being bailed out,, aren't we now socialist? Public money for private sector screw-ups... This baffles me. Those institutions were extremely greedy which caused their recklessness and who gets hurt the most? The common person because he/she has her money tied up in this crap.

The new business model is take on as much risk as you can to make insane profits with other peoples money and should things go to hell, the common man will lose, write his/her congressman and the government will bail out the institution. Who wins? Those that took the risk, made a ton of money and left the common person high and dry.

How did this happen? Well, according to the President "Wall Street got drunk!!!" This would be extremely hilarious if it wasn't so serious. I propose from here on out we ban any sale of alcohol in the entire state of New York. If a banker tries to conceal a flask, he should be drawn and quartered.

Luckily for me, I have very little in the stock market and do not currently own a home. I also do not have much in a pension scheme so this "crisis" affects me very little.

On the news a few days ago, they were talking about how credit card companies can lower the credit limit of individuals without any notice or warning. These individuals were then complaining about how it is akin to taking their own money!!! This is CREDIT people, not your money, is money you do not have and are not entitled to! What happened to the notion of spending money you have? What happened to saving your pennies, and using that accumulated cash to purchase what you wish? When did credit become an absolute necessity?? Well, it became so when people got used to it and not paying their bills which lead to profits for the credit card companies who in turn marketed their cards like crazy, people got more cards which led to more debt!!!

So what impression has all this nonsense left on a relatively young person like me? Well, as mentioned in an earlier post, I can never vote for a Republican again and now I am leaning more towards Socialism!! I blame the banks/brokerage houses for this mess because the common person cannot understand that debt is a bad thing. Therefore, we either need to be a Socialist country with more regulation for the institutions or we need to let them fall flat when they fail. I am not comfortable with pretending to be Capitalist when it is a farce. All or nothing, no hypocrisy please!

I was once asked what it is that I like about Asia so much. I'm always talking about how much I miss it over there and hope to return someday. I've never really been able to offer the perfect answer but in a nutshell it is the following.

In Vietnam especially the people are exceptionally warm and friendly. It is impossible for a Vietnamese not to be able to have a very large, sincere smile on their face when you meet them. They are very poor yet seemingly never unhappy. Even the woman carrying 100lbs of stuff on her shoulder does so with a smile. It seems like they are living the perfect life with little to no money and have found happiness.

I believe a big part of this is that family is very important to them and even in the face of extreme hardship and even war they can see the beauty of life and have an great appreciation for it.

However, here in America it seems we are constantly striving towards the same end which is simple happiness. Unfortunately we go about it in the entirely wrong way and never get there. We do things that we think will bring happiness such as work for a lot of money, cars, vacations and although these things do bring temporary happiness it never lasts as we need to continue getting more more more to sustain it.

In this way, I think a good analogy is that of a Desperate Housewife.

1. Concern with image - Our culture is always telling us we are not good enough. We always have to "get to the next level" whether it be better looking, more money or higher social status.

a.) concern with image - The cosmetic companies always tell us we are not beautiful/hansome enough and need their products to have a reasonable appearance. The clothing companies also do the same and change the styles every single season so that we are constantly out of fashion and must spend more to keep up. The Desperate housewife is the same, always trying to outdo each other in terms of appearance. Yet, they can never win as there are always more clothes to buy, different creams/makeup to make the skin smoother etc. Therefore, they will never reach the goal and just be able to stop and be comfortable with their image.

2.) Medication - America IS on drugs. We are so overly medicated that now there is even estrogen in the water supply. If you have a problem then there must be some sort of medication to treat it. A wise man once said that in America we are always treating the symptom and not the underlying causes. The cause being stress, not at peace, always running around and never at peace. In every religious tradition, peace and happiness is the goal yet we in America can never seem to get there. Therefore, we take drugs, have them advertised to us daily and consume consume consume.

3. Money - We can never get enough. Even if we do get that great job and reached a goal, then we simply have to get to the next level continuously unsatisfied with what we have achieved. In other words, we are always looking up and never how far we have come. In this way too we are never satisfied with what we have just like the Desperate Housewife. They always need more more more.

I sometimes think a good slogan for newcomers in America would be, "Welcome to America, now go buy something!"

4. The credit crisis - We are a capitalist country which by nature requires people to buy more stuff continuously. In this "credit crisis" we are shaken to the core because we will not have the ability to continually spend.

Now there are those who really are suffering like those losing their homes who have worked hard. Yet on the other end of the spectrum, we read stories about people who just bought more than they could afford and those that mortgaged their already owned homes so they could spend more. I wonder if there was a "fairness index" which could show those that really do need help and have worked hard vs those that just wanted bigger and better in terms of housing. Nancy Pelosi said we must "tighten our belts" but it would seem that the tightening is around a size 43 waist and that we cannot simply spend like madmen anymore.

I guess that after being in Vietnam and seeing people so happy who have nothing, I have trouble reconciling the fact that we should be feeling sorry for ourselves when we have become little more than constant consumers. I also think a result of this has been the mass evangelical movement for people who are looking for more meaning out of life than to simply consume. Not inherently bad, but unfortunately it hits mostly the uneducated and they start telling other people how to live and how to be fanatical.

Desperate Housewives we are indeed.

As I've grown older and more informed through various media sources I cannot help but be very disappointed in how we in America appoint our leaders. This race for the presidency seems so absurd, so childlike, yet is for the highest office in the most powerful country in the world. This post could easily turn into a rant about the idiocy of the American media and the stories (stories = a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events) they report on the race. However, it is best to go right to the source and the media has become little more than a biased parrot (both sides) that simply repeats what the village idiots (politicians) are saying. The following are issues that have been giving me a severe headache and have turned me completely off any news unless it comes from the BBC, NPR or the Economist. Others such as CNN or Fox are simply tabloids and I've ranted enough about them before.

1. Sara Palin - While I still maintain a small modicum of respect for McCain, that too has nearly dissipated in his choice for running mate. A lady that stands up there and speaks like Ned Flanders (okaly dokaly, golly gee) in such a slow, dumb manner makes me want to jump off a building. I suppose the rouse is to "connect" with the idiots in America. If we are looking to rebuild our image in the world, it simply will not do to have a VP who thinks she knows foreign policy because "Russia is close to Alaska." I can just imagine it now how she would explain the problem of Iran to her supporters. "Iran has been naughty-waughty and my son is in the military so if you don't support my son who is fighting the baddies then you hate America!"

Just thinking about her conjures up an image of some 40 something blond bimbo in an SUV who agrees we should attack everyone so she can buy cheap oil to take her litter to soccer practice and believes that her faith in Jesus justifies that America is correct in everything it has ever done.

Living abroad has been so beneficial yet such a curse because those that have experienced other cultures can see very clearly how stupid our leaders can be.

I about blew a blood vessel when I read the headline "Sara Palin accuses Barack Obama of associating with terrorists."

So to sum up the Republican argument

a. If my son is in the military, you better support it or you hate America
b. America has never and will never do anything wrong.
c. Jesus loves America
d. We Deserve to have big houses, big cars and will go to war to ensure it.
e. If you don't agree with us, you are a possible terrorist

I have posted about this before, but just to refresh, I find it very sad how in the American mind, any country that has religious leaders is usually considered a "fanatical" country. Yet, Palin is an Evangelical Christian (see crazy ass) and often refers to her faith. I see no difference between crazy religious leaders of another country or our own.

2. Rush Limbaugh - Just saying his name should make people roll their eyes. I listed from time to time just to get the blood going. Last I did, he was talking about news reports that said John McCain's stay at the Hanoi Hilton "wasn't all that bad." The media interviewed the director of that prison who said he had "amiable chats with McCain," and "McCain often gave him impromptu English lessons."

He was speaking in Vietnamese and Rush's argument was "if that's the case, why doesn't he speak in the so called English McCain has taught him.

Letter to Rush.

Dear Fat Ass,

As I'm sure you cannot speak any other language I'm sure it would be very hard to comprehend through that fat skull of yours the difficulty of learning another language. Just because many immigrants have learned English rather easily does not mean that it is easy to do so. They have achieved it because they are surrounded by it day in and night for years. A few "impromptu lessons" will simply not do the trick and anything learned would most likely be forgotten in 40 years.

Your entire career has simply been to speak English while you grew fatter in your chair while fantasizing about what you could do to yourself with that microphone. You have spoken English everyday of your life so of course English seems easy to you. If you could complete three sentences in any other language you might be forgiven and no "Yo quiero Taco Bell," Mi cumpleanos es..." or "Mi nombre es.." does not count.

You are a fat biased prick and should I ever become president, my first act will be to deport your sorry ass to Antarctica.

3. OHIO - The Republicans of Ohio have been acting up lately and trying to deny people the right to vote. They finally got a boot put in their ass by the Supreme Court and "praise Jesus" for that. Just goes to show how vile that party has become when they resort to taking away liberties afforded to every American. I fail to see the difference between that and the tactics some dictator countries use. The Republicans won before by not counting votes and are trying again.

For me, the issues do not even matter anymore. I've clearly seen how evil the Republicans can be and no matter how many times they try to scare me by using the word terrorist, I will never vote for you again. In fact, I don't care if Gandhi comes back to life and runs for office,,, if he is a Republican I will not vote for him. From this day forward, I'm voting only for Democrats on every single issue, in every single campaign. I will join the Communist party before I vote for another damn Republican.