AllTheseThings

Golden Boy

If you watched last night’s presidential debate, you may have focused your attention on the candidates’ plans for the economy, health care and education. I, on the other hand, was wondering how a plumber can make 200K+ per year. Did I hear that right? Joe makes over 200 grand?

You may think I’m jealous. Well, maybe a little, but my thoughts this morning turned in another direction. This guy’s quite a catch! He’s single, he has a good job, he works hard for his money and he’s not that bad looking either. And, as if that weren’t enough, HE CAN FIX STUFF!! This guy is golden.

So I’ll be catching the next plane out to Ohio to find Joe and pledge my undying love. I just have to ask him one quick question before “I do”:

“Who are you voting for?”

Philomena

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Be Afraid

With the political momentum moving in the Democrats' direction, Democratic leaders are envisioning life in Congress with huge, liberal majorities, and a liberal President.  The result:  dusting off FDR's play book.  This is compounded by the financial mess, and Washington's response to it:  more agencies, more federal control, more tax payer money.

There seems to always be a big-government 'solution' when the country hits a tough stretch.  But, the net effect is for historians to declare an end to the age of Reagan, and for Democrats to no longer mention Clinton and avoid FDR, but the other way around.  What a change a couple years can make.

This reversion to FDR's massive, government-regulate-everything approach is well chronicled in the following article.  You should read the entire thing, it's pretty scary.  And these comments are not coming from a bunch of left-wing wackos with MoveOn.org.  These are coming from prominent, well-known, elected Democrats, who are looking for a "New Deal 2.0"!

I often wondered what it was like to be a conservative in the 1930's, with the whole country socializing and nationalizing.  It must have felt as if Constitutional democracy was ending.  Most of my political life has been spent in, or after, the Reagan restoration--where at least people understood the merits of limited government.  Well, it looks like I might get to find out what it was like in the 1930's after all.

Here's how it starts:

With visions of a massive liberal majority in the next Congress and the power to remake economic policy for the next generation, Democrats are dusting off their New Deal history books and openly discussing the idea of re-engineering Depression-era agencies for the 21st century.

Several lawmakers want to bring back the Home Ownership Loan Corp., and others have discussed resurrecting the defunct Reconstruction Finance Corp., a federal program that made direct loans to businesses. Others see a lame-duck stimulus bill less as a short-term cash infusion for the economy and more as a long-term, government-driven jobs creator — a kind of modern Works Progress Administration that invests in infrastructure, bridges and roads.

Come next year, the new administration and the new Congress may be able to build an entire new bureaucracy to govern the economy for decades. Essentially, Democrats want to put some institutional permanence behind the sweeping executive actions taking place as the Bush administration moves to shore up banks and other financial institutions with Treasury’s new powers.

Read on here...

With visions of a massive liberal majority, dancing in my head,

Thomas More

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Time out

The financial markets are in meltdown, and what am I doing? I’m sitting on my couch, drinking my coffee and watching the morning news, just like any other day. What am I thinking? I should be running around and screaming with my head in my hands! Hmm…..maybe just one more sip of java……

I am pretty financially conservative, which helps to keep me calm. My job is safe, my car is paid for and I’ve got a fixed rate mortgage with one of the few banks still standing. But I still feel a little guilty, walking around as if nothing is happening, when everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I found some reassurance on the news this morning. One of the financial experts described the cause of the plunging stock market like this: we have been used to buying things we can’t afford, using credit cards and bank loans etc. Now these things are less available, we are forced to live within our means. We don’t like it, and, like a 4 year old with his popsicle taken away, we are having a tantrum. The tantrum is manifesting itself in us taking all of our money out of the stock market and stuffing it under the mattress. (So there!!). His advice was, as every good parent knows, just to ride out the tantrum until it subsides. I like to translate this as “sit on the couch and enjoy your breakfast”.

So I guess it’s OK to be calm in the middle of the storm. I do feel terrible for the people who were planning to retire soon. For them, "riding it out" wasn’t in the plan and may not even be an option. But for the rest of us, we are being asked to do one of the hardest things imaginable: keep our eyes fixed on the long term and wait patiently.

Does that sound familiar?!

Philomena

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Debating the Debate: Statistics and Slogans

Here's my initial take on last night's VP debate:  ugh.  I thought Sen. Biden was rather boring and simply had memorized countless Senate votes and procedural moves.  If I wanted to know historical votes, I'd fire up the old Tivo recordings of C-SPAN.  But, alas, I'm not having trouble sleeping at night, so I don't need to do that.  Simply put:  boring.  I didn't get a clear picture of THE IDEA(s) that he and his team were pushing for America.  As a long-time observer of politics, I know what his ideas are--and Obama's--but the case for them wasn't made to America.  "A 12% reduction for those making $42,000 would yield a budgetary impact of $4,356,789,908, thus increasing GDP by 0.4%, blah, blah, blah..." does not present an argument for increasing the size or scope of the federal government.

Similarly, I thought Gov. Palin tended to retreat to safe sayings--"we need more oil."  While I agree with the safe sayings, poll tested I'm sure, I don't think that it presents a clear case for why her ideas are right and Sen. Biden's are wrong.  I assumed the MSM would tee off on that and declare how knowledgeable Sen. Biden was, and how unprepared Gov. Palin was.  But as I review the papers today, I'm quite surprised by the MSM and independent voters' reactions.  It seems, to summarize all the headlines, that Gov. Palin probably won on points, though not by knock out.  It also seems that the race was handicapped by expectations.  If it was an even match up--meaning, no preconceptions and expectations--then Sen. Biden won.  But, given that MSM set Gov. Palin up as out of her league, her holding her own translated to most views as a win!  Ahh, thank goodness for MSM bias!

In any event, I based my initial response on a big hope that the candidates always push the big IDEAS--not statistics or slogans.  We have a fundamental disagreement in this country and it is not GOP v. Democrats.  It has to do with individual equality and freedom.  Here's the question for our time:  Are all men created equal?  If so, ought they to be free to choose their own way in this life, or should we appoint an enlightened class to guide them--and if we're equal, who are the 'enlightened ones'?  If they are not equal, who do we pick for governmental leadership that will make the inferiors enjoy this life as much as the superiors?

It turns out, however, that the "idea debate" is not the debate the undecideds were interested in.  Hence, the response to the debate this morning is decidedly more in favor of Gov. Palin than I had expected.  To show this, you should watch the video below.  It is a group of undecided voters reacting to the debate.  It is hosted by Frank Luntz, who is a master of political language usage, and 'dial testing' voters to see how America reacts to political and commercial ads, speeches, and debates.  He is brilliant, and I always learn a lot by listening to him.  His conclusion based on his focus group, seen below, is that Gov. Palin exceeded expectations, connected with voters, and won the debate.  He believes this debate will help Sen. McCain's lately dwindling poll numbers significantly.

Check out the room's response--keep in mind these are all undecided voters--to the question about who won.

Thomas More

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Light in the Darkness

"Visit this house, Lord, we pray,
And drive far from it the power of the adversary.
May your holy angels dwell here instead,
And the blessing of peace remain on us always."

So we pray for our children every night, blessing them with the sign of the Cross.

I was reminded of the power of the Cross, of the holy protecting angels, and of the saints in a conversation with a new friend, Kendra.  Her 8 year old daughter, Laura, has many fears.  Laura has created an elaborate evening routine in going to and getting in and staying in bed.  Being from a thoroughly secular family, prayer is not an option - at least not one I could suggest to her mother.  (When the family came over for lunch, the children did not even know that anyone might at some time pray before a meal.  They had clearly never heard of the idea.)

We had to confront real ongoing fear in our youngest daughter's fear of the dark.  But we could not abide any of the schmaltzy angel-ick night lights on offer.

Thankfully when Nicodemus spent 10 days at the Monastery of St. John in northern California this summer, he found the night light of St. George.  Dashing a dragon to bits is most definitely the way to cast the darkness out of a child's room!  We had assured our daughter, E., that her guardian angel was watching over her.  We had hung an icon of a guardian angel by her bed.  We had prayed, as do Orthodox Jews to this day, that the Archangels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel would protect her.  We reminded her that if she had a bad dream or awoke afraid, she should make the sign of the Cross, asking for Christ's protection. And these all helped.

And to be truthful, the assurance of valiant St. George impaling the dragon has calmed her fears - and satisfied her parents' various requirements of a night light.

Night, night,

Beth

(The night light is not available on the website, but you can call or email Brother Valentin: (530) 474-5964 or [email protected])

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