Safe travels, Chell!

Chells Roost




We will watch and wait for your return.

Hello, B.J.

Fair warning, I have a weakness for LOLcats.

One year

A year ago a gentle blossom was taken from my dear friends. The world has not been quite as bright since. I hope she is in a better place and I wish whatever comfort and peace is possible for her loving family on this sad anniversary.

Thank you gentle Alesya for the blessed memories you left behind.

And she says she's not an Angel...

A dear and precious friend in Oregon e-mailed me that she had made and packed some cinnamon bread for me but was not able to ship it because of the ice and snow. The household was going to open them and have a party but they heard that an elderly lady down the street was alone and snowed in so they carried the bread and a pot of hot stew down to her house and they shoveled the snow off her stairs and had hot chocolate with her. This is no surprise to anyone who knows these folks.

I wrote to her that I had never gotten so much joy from a loaf of bread before. This would be the very essence of Christmas Spirit except this is typical of these people all year round! May you all find joy, comfort, and contentment this Christmas Season. I find I have so much to be thankful for in my friends and associates. Thank you all.

Thank you, Paul Weyrich.

Paul Weyrich has passed away. The world is diminished by his absence. I first saw him on TV about 14 years ago. He had a program on his satellite station, NET Network. I greatly admire his integrity and his character. When I started to feel cynical, or despaired the lack of honor and honesty in politics it was the thought that he was active and respected in politics that helped keep me from giving up on the country. I did not share his religious beliefs but I greatly respected his uncompromising devotion to his faith. He was a credit to his church and a blessing to this country. I wish I knew of another of his caliber.

Thank you, Sir, for all that you have done for America and all that you have unknowingly given to me. You have inspired me with your character and wisdom and set a standard I have and will strive to honor, though I can never match it. May you find peace and rest.

Aftermath

Well, it's over. I find myself rather bummed about the results and what it says about the American people, but I don't think we will see marshal law and Brownshirts in the streets any time soon. We have just kicked out the firemen and turned over full control to the arsonists who set fire to our economy and looted our treasury, with instructions to "fix" it and full access to our bank account and credit. WEEEEE!!!

The Democrats have controlled the legislature for two years. They now have bigger majorities in the house and senate as well as the Whitehouse. How long will they be able to blame their failures and the consequences of their actions on the Republicans and George Bush? Maybe this is what Nancy meant when she said that increasing the house majority for Democrats would make it more bipartisan, they would take the pork and the Republicans would take the heat?

My biggest concerns are:

--The threat to energy development by the bans I expect on drilling and exploitation of oil shale.

--The damage to the economy of regulation and higher taxes along with higher energy costs.

--The threat of federal laws against firearms and ammunition, through bans, regulations, or taxes, and the higher crime rates that will bring. It could roll back the progress we have made against crime as 40 states passed "right to carry" laws and saw their crime rates drop. It also disarms citizens at a time when the words and intention of the second amendment ring quite loudly.

--The threat from terrorist forces when the military is forced to stop fighting them overseas and they return to our shores with a renewed sense of immunity.

In one sense I am lucky as I don't expect any surprises or buyers remorse. Although Obama is a shameless liar he has been rather open about that. He has lied openly and publicly so no one can say they were deceived except by their own desire to be deceived. If you ignore what he said he has been rather consistent about his intentions and beliefs. The people who think Obama will pay for their gas and mortgage may be in for a rude awakening and that tax rebate will not seem so cool if it comes with a pink slip. I wonder how many working class Democrats are going to find themselves like autoworkers, with high pay but no job? As for me, any surprises will be good ones.

I suppose the biggest question will be if Obama has the sense to go slow enough not to scare the horses. If his arrogance leads him to move too fast, he may find himself saddled with a Republican congress and senate, as Clinton did. We shall just have to see what happens. I didn't think there was much chance for this election, though I didn't expect this bad a result. The energy and excitement that Sarah brought to the campaign gave me some hope. Now I'm just bummed.

I want to crawl off and hide.

The Stakes are High.

I have been buried in financial opinion and analysis and of course the opinions vary widely. I am not an economist and this is not a subject I enjoy looking into, but the stakes are high and we are being rushed to give a huge blank check and unaccountable power to the very people who's reckless tampering with the markets got us here. They have lost the benefit of a doubt in my eyes. It should not surprise anyone that when you dump huge amounts of easy credit into a limited market, the value of those dollars goes down, causing the price of those houses to go up in the inflated dollars. If you then dump yet more dollars into the market, backed by those inflated property values, you are building a bubble. If you or I ran such a ponzi scheme we would be prosecuted. Only our congress would see it as a reason to open our wallets to them when it collapsed.

We are being told that we "Must do something!", and I agree we should, as we have brought this about, but we should be careful that we don't make the problem worse or longer lasting by what we do. I do not think we should try to save the mortgages of people who should never have been given loans in the first place and I don't want to shift the costs from the bankers to the tax payers. If the government buys these loans it would seem they will be dumping them, further depressing a market already flooded with under priced homes. Also, with so much money moving around and so little transparency I absolutely do not trust these bozos not to skim off huge amounts for their favorite groups. Having taken over the housing market and the banking system, what industry is next? When the market tampering makes the problem worse rather than better, will they admit their error and undo it or will they say they need yet more control? I was trying to make a living in Nixon's wage and price controls and Carter's economy. No thanks! Not again! They will say what supporters of socialism always say, "It just wasn't done right" and "We need to go farther". Bull!

What to do?

Suspend or modify "mark-to-market" accounting for now. I don't know if it's for the best long term but it is causing problems in this situation. I think we need something similar long term.

Loosen up credit by lending to banks rather than buying bad assets. If banks have been imprudent them let them end up in other hands but don't let the lockup take down the healthy banks. Make it clear there will NOT be a buyout!

Ease concerns about mortgage backed securities by issuing insurance, which the holders will pay for, not the tax payers.

If people were hurt by recent purchases of homes at the inflated prices WE caused I wouldn't mind seeing a limited program to help share their loses, but strict oversight and control is needed. See the next point.

Put proper adults watching over these programs and dismantle them! Congress has shown it is not honest enough for this task. They can not have the power to interfere with the regulators. It should be obvious that the people charged with oversight CAN NOT TAKE MONEY from the people they are watching. Unfortunately this was not so obvious to our legislators.

Part of the problem here is that the economy was already staggering from high energy costs. We should immediately start developing and expanding the different energy and refining resources we have, not just removing the legal blocks but passing emergency enabling legislation that will keep the usual players from blocking these projects in court or in the regulatory agencies. The regulators need to do their jobs to protect us but these programs need to be exempted from the more onerous provisions that can be used to tie them up for years. The oil, coal, shale oil, and gas we have can supply the time and the prosperity we need to develop long term practical alternative energy sources. We need new refineries so we don't take a hit every time a storm blows through the gulf or something causes one to shut down for a while. We have not built a new refinery since the 1970s and we have no effective reserve capacity. Ending our oil imports alone could save more in a couple of years than the staggering amount they want to grab for the bailout. All that money pouring into our own economy would greatly help the recovery.

Given the hit our economy has taken from high energy prices and this market meddling we can not afford to hit it with higher taxes now. The tax cuts should be made permanent and expanded. Capitol gains tax should be greatly cut to encourage investment, and corporate taxes, which are among the highest in the world, should be reduced or eliminated. We have seen several times in my lifetime how powerful and robust our economy is when we let it operate properly. This would seem to be a good time!

This is my much oversimplified, under qualified opinion on this mess. The good news is that I am not part of the system making these decisions. The bad news is that we will all have to live with the consequences. This will not be fun.