More signs of insanity...

seriously.

Reading the news is dangerous to your mental health. 

Politicians are still wrangling over the Confederate flag.

American Thinker:  Keep the Confederate Flag Flying

People who consider themselves adults think running in "mud races" is fun.  What the hell happened to chess and reading a good book? Or how about sitting around in pretty clothes having adult conversations with other adults while enjoying an adult beverage.

The Blaze: Texas Woman’s Horror Story of How Participating in a Mud Run Damaged Her Eyesight

You'll be happy to know that The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the West Village, has been named a city landmark.  And later today, Odumbo will have a reception for homosexuals in the White House to celebrate gay pride month - or something. I've had about enough of the 2% of the population that seems to garner 99% of the attention.

Weasel Zipper:  Obama’s America: Erase All History Of The Pre-Civil War South While A Gay Bar Becomes A National Historic Landmark In NYC…

Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse:

Corporations, individuals and the federal government continue to rack up debt at a rate that is far faster than the overall rate of economic growth.  We are literally drowning in red ink from sea to shining sea, and yet we just can’t help ourselves.  Consumer credit has doubled since the year 2000.  Student loan debt has doubled over the course of the past decade.  Business debt has doubled since 2006.  And of course the debt of the federal government has doubled since 2007.  Anyone that believes that this is “sustainable” in any way, shape or form is crazy.  We have accumulated the greatest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen, and yet despite all of the warnings we just continue to race forward into financial oblivion.  There is no possible way that this is going to end well. read the rest

And Greece is ready to implode.

But, hey - don't worry about all this silly stuff. 

Guess What?

A blogger who thinks teaching at a two-year community college (otherwise known as high school grades 13 and 14), makes him a member of the intelligentsia, and who thinks making juvenile comments about the size of a lady's breasts (hey, how about those hooters?), called my blog lame.  I think he also called me stupid, but I'm not sure since he doesn't express himself very well.

I'm honored.

More Insanity:

iOTWreport.com Demands That Anything Named After Senator Robert Byrd Be Changed

Moonbattery:  The Confederate Flag, Symbol of Rebels

Creative Minority Report:  So the Confederate Flag Should Come Down But Margaret Sanger Belongs on the $20 Bill?  


Posting will be light in the next few days as we prepare for a minor heat wave.  Today I ordered a portable air conditioner, and even paid an extra $49.00 for expedited shipping which made my thrifty little heart race.  It should arrive on Friday.  Considering our age, I think it will be a good purchase and well worth the $500.00 I just spent.

The Weather Report:

Saturday

Sunny and hot, with a high near 100.

Sunday

Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 105.

Monday

Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 101.

Tuesday

Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 100.

I'm Tired of Rascism - Let's Talk About Your Personal Survival

It's impossible to go anywhere on the blogosphere without running into someone talking about racism.  Anyone who doesn't believe this is manufactured and fed by this administration is just not paying attention.  "Divide and Conquer" is apparently the motto of the current crop of puppets in the White House, and of all their communist friends.

Meantime, we've hung our hopes for a better future on the November elections.  The elections are important, but it's only a beginning.  We are saddled with a federal government that is so completely out of control and so debt ridden, it will take decades to restore it to some form of sanity. 

I read an interesting article at The Economic Collapse that, while very good,  didn't go far enough.  It starts out by making this assertion:

For decades, most Americans have enjoyed an extremely high standard of living.  In fact, most of us have been "enjoying the high life" and "living the dream" for so long that we have assumed that it is just always going to be that way.

This is certainly true, but the question is, "how have we been "living the high life?"  For most people, this higher standard of living has been acquired through debt, in the same way our government is "financing" the destruction of our country.  People built their dream homes (can you say McMansion?) and saddled themselves with mortgages way beyond their means.  Add on the SUV that cost $35,000.00  with a monthly payment of $600.00 - $900.00, a few credit cards for non-essentials like $500.00 shoes, and you have a prescription for disaster.

But now a rapidly growing percentage of Americans is getting the chance to experience some very serious economic pain.  Today, over 40 million Americans are on food stamps and over 20 million U.S. children are living in poverty.  Tens of millions of Americans are unemployed, and personal bankruptcies and foreclosures continue to set all-time records.  For many people, all of this economic turmoil was completely unexpected.

Of course it was unexpected.  In just the last 60 years, I have witnessed a 180 degree shift in the way people conduct their lives.  The welfare state has exploded, the number of children born to unmarried mothers keeps climbing (a leading indicator of children living in poverty), education is dumbed down to the point where high school graduates can't read or write, and easy credit has made us all slaves. 

A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.
55 percent?
That is incredible.
That means that over half of all American workers have been unemployed or have been forced to take a reduction in pay since the recession started.

That is incredible and as the recent "bank reform" kicks in, ObamaCare slowly unfolds, along with the very real possibility of Cap and Trade being rammed through, it will get much worse. 

As the economic situation continues to deteriorate, record numbers of Americans are going bankrupt and are losing their homes.  In fact, banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010.

The majority of the homes in foreclosure in my area are the ones falling into the "McMansion" category.  One of the higher priced golf course communities is located next to where we used to live.  On our nightly stroll, we "toured" the mostly ugly homes as they were being built.  The average price tag was $400K and up to over a million.  Now they can't sell these behemoths for $200K.

The article continues by casting out a glimmer of hope:

A lot of this frustration is coming out as anger towards the government.  People are waking up and are starting to realize that the American ruling class has been doing an incredibly bad job of running things.  The American people are hungry for a real change.  In fact, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 23% of voters nationwide believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

 Well, that's a very good start.  The problem lies in those fatal words, "The American people are hungry for a real change."  It seems to me that "change" is what accelerated this problem to begin with. The change we should be looking for is the change within ourselves; which, when you come right down to it, is the only change you can really effect.  If you're waiting or hoping for someone else to "fix" this mess, you have a long, long wait.

After the glimmer of hope we get this:

But will we start to see some real changes in the years ahead?
Unfortunately, that is quite doubtful.  The reality is that the American ruling class has a stranglehold on both political parties, and they are not going to release their grip easily.
Meanwhile, our leaders continue to perpetuate the same failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  But unless some fundamental changes are made soon, the economic pain that Americans are experiencing is going to continue to get even worse.

Well, now - that's depressing.  But it doesn't have to be.  I'm a fan of Dave Ramsey and his no-nonsense philosophies of money management. When you listen to his program, particularly on Fridays when the callers who recently became debt-free call in, you can see who the future winners will be; the people who are "not servants to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7)

If you're in debt, rectify the situation as quickly as possible.  Credit cards?  Cut them up and live within your means.  Lost your job?  You may have to settle for two part-time jobs.  Just think - if you weren't saddled with huge debt, such things wouldn't be that big of a problem.  And, most importantly, learn to "pray as if everything depended on God.  Work as though everything depended on you" (St. Augustine)

House Painting Continues

 I'll be back with some linky-love.  Yesterday's dentist appointment morphed into 2 1/2 hours of torture (which will be repeated tomorrow and for another two appointments after that) leaving my schedule a bit behind.  We should wind up the house painting this morning...