Special Bulletin

The news says: “In the face of thousands of phone calls and e-mails fiercely opposing the measure, many lawmakers were not willing to take the political risk of voting for it just five weeks before the elections.
The bill went down, 228-205.”

Bad timing boys.  You should have broke the news three months ago.

Why did this bill go down? “We’re all worried about losing our jobs,” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. “Most of us say, ‘I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it — not me.’”

Yeah, this is a hot potato no matter how you mash it.

But here is some bad stuff..  “The Fed, which has been providing billions in short-term loans to squeezed banks to help them overcome credit stresses, could keep expanding those loans to encourage lending. And, it could keep working with other central banks to inject billions into financial markets overseas.”

It’s bad enough billions are going into financial markets overseas — but all this is funny money, Monopoly chits.  Every dollar spent is a promissory note that you and I - not to mention our kids — will have to back up and pay back.  If you are laughing because we’ll be paying off these loans with money that is only worth half as much I prophesy that you will be laughing out the other side of your face when the rest of the world realizes the good old American dollar isn’t worth a plugged nickel any more.

You’d better be looking at the changing prices in the world around you.  Staples that once sold for a dollar are now $1.15 to $1.29  In some cases the price increases are cleverly concealed.  For example, a one pound box of my graham crackers once sold for $1  Now the price is $1.09, BUT, the box only weighs fourteen ounces now.

For those of you more than ten years old, memories of dollar a gallon of gas come in handy here. to explain what the future will be like.  Here’s how the prices advanced sideways.  Pump prices were hovering at .95 a gallon for months — then it shot up to a dollar ten.  Shock, oh, we were shocked!  And the price dropped down to .97 a gallon.  At the next holiday the price went up to $1.14 — and then dropped to $1.03 and that was the last time I saw gas for under $1.00 per gallon.  Shock em, stick em.  Shock em some more, stick em even deeper.

We’re like frogs sitting in a pot of water heating up on the stove.  We may be alarmed a few times when the incremental increase is too big, but eventually we will all croak.

We’ve been shocked by the $800 billion bailout price tag, but when it slides back down to $600 billion half those that called in to their representatives in Washington will not call in again.  Politicians may have to drop down to $500 billion, but it will be just for the sake of appearances because softly and sweetly now the full price AND MORE will be slipped back into the package.

Mark my word.

Because of the recent change in servers most of my previous posts have been deleted, so I need to provide a little bit of history on this post. Just a few months ago Dr. Thomas at the Little Rock VA was assigned as my Primary Care Physician. I had been working on my well, pulling the 160 foot pump for the third time when my ride came in. We were late, I had no water, I went in looking rugged at the seams. The good doctor took an instant dislike to me and began ridiculing everything I said. My pain medicine was cut in half because there was no record of this increase. Three times I asked her to check the infection in my right ear. She laughed at me and refused. She also refused to look at my feet that were swollen to twice normal size. She was having a high old time and laughed out loud at me when I got up and walked out. Obviously she thought I was just a bum and she could hurt me repeatedly and get away with it.

My ear was bursting with pain all the way home. My daughter supplied me with anti-biotics and there were times the ear almost cleared up, but I could tell that I had lost most of the hearing in that ear. My feet got worse and the skin began to slit so it could stretch more.

In order to make sure I got a new doctor that was not prejudiced against me I had my files moved to North Little Rock. Three months elapsed before I did get another physician and Doctor Anderson has proven to be a world class physician. She had things happening so fast I couldn’t keep up with them.

Today I appeared for a new audio test. My records for a few years ago were right there for comparison. The hearing in my left ear has improved. The hearing in my right ear is completely gone. The ear drum no longer functions at all. The infection is still there too and surgery will be required. When asked what had gone so wrong I told the audio specialist about good old Dr. Thomas. The specialist was so angry in my behalf she was jabbing the keys as she entered this report. I was quite upset myself because it is obvious that my hearing could have been saved if she had given any attention at all to the problems I was experiencing.

My eyes were also checked out today and the one on the right is just a little bit better than it was at the last check out. The left eye was much better. The reason I mention this is to give hope to anyone with failing vision and believe all hope is gone to do anything more than hold the line a little bit. Improvement is possible.

In a previous post I told about how much hazard there is in being polite these days.  Well, today I went into the VA wearing my Church apparel, the best suit I have.  I began greeting everyone I met with Good Mornings.  The response was overwhelmingly delighted.  Then I began to notice a most peculiar reaction.  People would see me coming and automatically begin smiling, minutes before I reached him in one instance.  It wasn’t just men, but women too and in one instance two children.  While in one small hallway people would turn a corner and be against the far wall.  Still, they automatically picked me out and began smiling as if delighted to see me.  Now this went on for hours on end.   In the retail store at checkout I began a humorous banter with the clerk whose husband was standing nearby.  Not only was she laughing and having a good time but her husband seemed to appreciate it even more AND, the people waiting in line for service behind me were all laughing.

“The explanation must be that these veterans are braver than most other people,” I thought.  But when I left the VA hospital I went to a major super store and people would actually stop me to start conversations.  Now, I am old, bald headed and I think I’m fat, but even sweet young things smiled at me as if I were their favorite uncle.

I was not knowingly encouraging anyone to smile at me by wearing a vacuous grin — and yes, I suspiciously checked to make sure my fly was zipped.  This wonderful reaction kept right on happening right up to closing hour in the post office where my request was causing a lengthy search for a lost parcel.  I was exhausted, they looked quite tired, but there were smiles all around in front of me, and in the line behind me.  I thought: “Gee, I need to wake up on the other side of bed more often.”

So, my updated testimony is:
Being polite is possible everywhere on earth,
except Maumelle, of course.

Hi Cathi:

How are you? Fine, I hope. As for us we are all okay.
I looked up this morning and saw my Guardian Angel standing beside me. As soon as he saw I could see him he made himself vanish. But my funny bone was tickled so I pretended he was still there and I asked him why he still looks like a young kid. Don’t angels ever grow old?
“I’m the fourth one assigned to you,” he replied. “The first three wore their wings off trying to keep you out of trouble.”
Well, your wings are safe, I told him. It’s your poor knees that will wear out because what I need most right now is a Gardening Angel.
Then I climbed down the steep cliff in front of my computer and picked up that two story wooden ladder and hauled it up the road I built yesterday. It is an old thing and does not know its mother, so I am having to rebuild, restructure and renail everything that is a functionating part of the ladder.
Just to be on the safe side I have turned it upside down lengthwise so it will have a firm foundation when I start foundering up the rungs. That way I will be starting my climb at the top. This way I won’t have as far to fall since I will now be climbing down the ladder to get up on the roof.

That is all for now. I hope your broken foot heals up nicely and I am sorry you stubbed your nose against that flying squirrel’s dirty claws but I am sure your good looks will come back someday, unless you get a rash or something.

Forever yours,
X
Tom, Dick and Harry.
p.s. Tom signed for all of us.
He’s been practicing his writing at school lately and his X now looks better than mine.
I have to go now. Daddy’s still down in the well, but he hasn’t threatened none of us with bodily harm in the last three days so it might be safe to drag him out this morning.

Boy, I carried this thing all the way to the mail box yesterday and discovered I didn’t have a stamp on the envelope. Seems like I should have looked at it at least once in them three miles, but I didn’t. Now I am so wore out from climbing that mountain between us and the mail box that it will be tomorrow before I go try it again.

I must be getting old. I tried playing the harmonica for Grandpa but he said my music sounds just like the fury of lightning sizzling through a rotten steak. I wish I had never let him eat none of that bear, but honest, when I picked it up that meat sure did look like it was cooked all the way through.

With liberty and golden reimbursements for all that qualify

Do you remember how safe and secure we were just last month? Members of Congress stood up in those hallowed, majestic halls and swore on a stack of Bibles there was nothing wrong with our economy. Now in just one week they declare in all soberness that the whole situation has turned over on us — and every politician in Washington claims that if we don’t turn billions of dollars over to some half-baked committee armed with carte blanche priviliges then every apple in our cart will spill out in the streets of Laredo and roll down into Mexico.

These elected minions of the public couldn’t see any shadow of this debacle coming upon us a month ago? Don’t tell me a story like that! All I have is a fourth grade education and I saw this coming 5 years ago. I do not believe for one second that this series of events surprised anyone elected (and paid an exorbitant sum) to look out for our interests.

What is all this money going for? Our money will be spent to help a few people keep their yachts and their mansions and their big swimming pools and fleet of cars — because (we are warned) if we don’t keep them in their yachts and their mansions and keep the water changed in their swimming pools then our whole economy will collapse. Our elected officials were not smart enough to see this coming — and we are supposed to be dumb enough to believe they have come up with a good solution in less than a week?

The recipients of our largesse are so incompetent they need two accountants just to balance a check book for them — and the whole country will go broke if we don’t bail them out of their ummm, lack of intelligent foresight? Doesn’t it make more sense to let these rich beggars lose everything they have so they can get back in touch with the kind of reality you and I must face every day of our lives?

How successful at being reimbursed for their folly would this high-class piece of society be if they turned out on the streets and met us face to face in all their finery with their gold rings gleaming and their diamond pins shining. “Can you lend me a billion, pal? You are my pal, you know? Just last week I let you tie one of my shoes for me! And now, he-he-he, I need a favor back. Just a billion for me, and another one for my wife. You know?”

How do you get on this high maintenance list where the whole nation looks out for your best interests with a slop-eared grin?

====

Behold,
I stand somewhere near the door
And Whine.

= = =

I lost $380,419.62 last year in a single bad investment, but you know what? Not one member of Congress has offered me any sympathy — much less an open-handed reimbursement. What do you suppose I could be doing wrong? Maybe I haven’t been rich long enough for it to matter to Congress? No, my mother-in-law has been rich for the last 40 years and she lost almost every cent she had in our unflagging, unfailing economy of last year; Nobody has offered her any money back either.

Maybe it’s because I skipped the last two of those ten thousand dollar a plate power lunches where lifelong friendships are forged with a pat on the back?

Ah well, one good thing about this economic melt-down is that now even stalwart, loyal party voters will realize that we must unseat every member of Congress and start this country off on a clean slate again.

As Honest Abe once said: “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”