Bailout

It's early. Here is something to get the juices flowing.

The porn industry has asked for a bailout. I'm going to ask for a bailout at this rate. Apparently, people are depressed and not having sex and therefore the porn industry is to the rescue but...is broke. Obviously, if you are broke...no one is spending money on what you have to offer. Or you are producing much more than is being appreciated. If no one is buying what you are making...no one wants it or they are sick of seeing Paris Hilton. Find a new career, porn is out.

If you are really depressed, so depressed you don't feel like having sex and you seek to fix that problem by watching porn rather than...doing it with an actual person then that is what is really depressing. Don't go virtual, that's weird...not to mention insulting on several levels.

If America bails out the porn industry, I am next in line. Not to mention we are all going to hell if it does happen.

A.

Affairs

Affairs.

I just got done reading a novel about affairs that go on within a small French town. The hard-core female in me enjoyed every minute of it. Reading about the fire in their blood as they kissed in the white hallway while her husband lay dying in the bedroom. There is something romantic about fiery passion, isn’t there?

I asked myself after finishing it why so many of us enjoy scandals and affairs compared to the happily ever after of a loyal marriage. Could this be what is contributing to the demise how we view the institution of marriage? We’ve glamorized affairs. We are the united states of broken homes and broken hearts.

I was playing Apples to Apples with friends the other night. Marriage cards were played with irony to “loyal” and so on. Apparently the idea of marriage or marriage vows representing what they are supposed to be is comical. I don’t blame them. I can list a number of friends who have had their home wrecked by dad sleeping with the foxy lady in the office.

So it is scary when I see my peers getting married so young. Are they falling in the deep pit that is failed marriages?

When people are constantly changing, how do you evolve your trust with that change?

C.S. Lewis puts it quite beautifully. How many affairs have revolved around the word “happiness”. How someone deserves to be happy, has the right to be happy, wants to be happy. Ignore the fact that your happiness might be someone else’s sorrow. C.S. Lewis points out no where do we have the RIGHT to be happy. We simply have the right to pursue it. Unfortunately, we all have different means to an end. The love that ends in an affair is selfish and therefore was never love to begin with.

Or how about when someone apologizes for their disloyalty? Sydney and I were talking and how can you be sorry for something you are doing? “I’m sorry for cheating on you (but I’m going to stay with her and not you).” When you are sorry, you are attempting to correct something. Anything less is an insult.

Don’t get me started on “being in love”. You fall in love, yes, but that does not mean you stay there. My father is a wise man. I trust his word because my parents marriage has defied the divorce statistics. They are happily married…have been for over 20 years. He says you can fall into anything but you have to work to stay there. It is not easy. Love is not easy, so why would falling in love and staying there be any easier? It is not the falling that is hard, it’s the being. You can fall in love, but can you be in love? Can you love in a constant present tense?

If I could see anything in 2009 change it would be relationships. I want to see marriages work. I want to see people working harder, not giving up. I want to see lasting love, the kind that grows old, not the kind that goes for younger girls. I want to see families growing stronger not torn apart. I want to know that the fiery passion in the hallway is between a husband and wife while the kids are asleep. That a woman’s husband is late coming home not because he was making out in the back of the car with his secretary but because he was getting flowers for his wife.

Etiquette

My dad is probably right. My generation needs to learn etiquette. Any takers?

Notes from being back home

Notes from being back home:

1) There is such thing as too much Ed Hardy. Seriously, settle down Scottsdale.
2) We may live in the West, but it is no longer Wild. Dress accordingly.
3) How many friendships end with "don't tell anyone"? When I walked by two girls sitting at a table and heard one say to the other, "don't tell anyone, okay?" I knew by the tone of her voice what she said was monumental and that the friend receiving the news was not going to be able to contain this secret. Oh, girls...
4) Benjamin Button was right. Home doesn't change, you do.
5) Dogs sleep a lot.
6) Why does Krispy Kreme put original glazed donuts in the case when everyone asks for a warm one?

Panic of 1907

I was reading an article the other day called "The Panic of 1907" describing the financial fiasco that included a U.S. Stock Market crash, bank failure internationally, and a $15 billion loss (in today's dollar). At the time J.P Morgan was our Warren Buffet of today. However, when J.P. Morgan heard the news of the economic system collapse, he did not panic but held strong. Which would make sense because you could imagine how you would feel if you knew Ben Bernanke was nervous.

At this point, the Fed did not exist. A hard fact to grasp today.

Morgan appointed George Baker of First National Bank and James Stillman of National City Bank to decide which trust companies should be allowed to fail and which could survive with a cash infusion. This is similar to today but unfortunately I think we are decided bank failure on which name failing would be the biggest shock. For example, Bear Stearns could not fail because it was such a HUGE name in the business...

Regardless of the economy, New York City as a city had to be saved. This caused Morgan to gather 50 trust company presidents and asked them to come up with $25 million. Morgan required each to take place in the $25 million loan.

This panic of 1907 made people determine that a country's financial welfare could no longer be left in private hands while today we are facing a similar conclusion based on which side of the fence you stand on.

Morgan did not do this for his personal gain, he lost $21 million. This kind of patriotism for the nation's well-being is what we need today. Someone who sees beyond their personal loss and sees a nation's loss. Who is willing to lose $21 million in order to save 21 million jobs? Although what drives a lot of our economy today is based off of self-interest and greed, today we need some selflessness.

We need to be paying attention to which leaders are fighting for the American people and which are using the American people as a disguise for personal gain.


Source: www.courier-journal.com

Iraq War vs. Domestic goods

If the government used the tax money that came from Suffolk Country alone for things other than the Iraq war, these are the goods that could have been provided domestically:

Health care for 122,148 people for a whole year

Homes with renewable electricity for one year for 1,240,078 people.

Public Safety officers for one year for 12,783 people.

10,087 Music and art teachers for one year

108,087 scholarships for University students for one year

3,765 affordable housing units

231,459 children with Health Care for one year

2,671 Elementary teachers for one year .....

This is just for one County. Imagine what the numbers would be with many more.

- A.

source: www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Rules of the Kitchen

I have not updated much but I would like to leave this with you until I do have time to update...

Never stick your finger in frosting, if it is not yours. Always ask the baker.


- A.