Taking A News Vacation

There is a lot going on out there and some of it really makes me wish I had never accessed the news in any way.  Last week a couple of kids were arrested because they had decided that it would be funny, cool, whatever to kill people based on the color of their victims’ skin and then finish off their feat of intelligence by taking a shot at Barack Obama.  I just cannot deal with the kind of deep seeded ignorance and stupidity that is required to be a racist.  Racists come in all colors, white people are not the only racists in the world. 

It says a lot to our lack of imagination when we attempt to break everything down into the simplest of terms.  To the average person there are black people and there are white people.  I have met thousands of people in my day and I have yet to see anyone that is black or anyone that is white.  I have also yet to see anyone prove to me that the color of their skin is an indication of the kind of person they are.  Black hating white people are just as ignorant and white hating black people.  I have always been and advocate for eliminating race from any conversation and forcing people to rely on the strength of their character in order to get what they want out of life.  If you look at me and hate me because of the color of my skin before you even know me then you are a fool.  If you act the stereotype and then complain that one group or another is “keeping you down” then you are a fool.  People make their own decisions and people make much better decisions when they decide based on the context of the issue and not on the color of anyone’s skin.

Man I needed to get that off my chest.  I don’t understand racism (when I say racism I am talking about anyone hating anyone else because of skin color – racism is not exclusive to any one race) and I just cannot understand people that will not vote for a candidate simply because of the color of his skin.  That is ignorance to the highest degree in my opinion.

So after I got done digesting that bit of ugliness I go to CNN.com today and there is a story about how Exxon/Mobil posted $15 Billion in profits last quarter.  That is a record you know.  Those profits were recorded in the last quarter when gas was still almost $4 a gallon.  That is the profit off of the misery of millions of Americans.  But Americans have changed their ways and gas prices have been falling for weeks now.  Americans are driving billions of less miles and we have dropped our consumption of gasoline by millions of gallons.  Will the American public get our revenge or will Exxon/Mobil post yet another record profit in three months?  Let me put it this way.  If Exxon/Mobil posts another record profit in three months then there is something very wrong with the way that this country takes care of its people.

So I am taking a vacation from the news until after the election.  I hate bad news and lately it seems that the only kind of news we have to read is bad news.

Up, Down, Up, Down

No this isn’t about marital acts.

I got to thinking the other day about the stock market.  I know I am not unique in taking the time to think about the stock market the last few weeks but I did notice something that I’m not sure many other people noticed.

Did you notice that there is nothing you can do as an individual to influence the direction the stock market takes?  Here is who should be concerned about the fluctuation in the stock market.  People within 5 years of retiring or people that have short term investments that are tied to risky stock market investments.  If you are 25 years old then maybe you want to move your 401K over to the low yield, low risk funds to make sure you don’t lose everything but, to be honest, if you haven’t done it by now then it is too late.

The President talks to us like he is saving our hides and our fortunes.  No he isn’t.  He is trying desperately to keep the economy alive long enough where history will not label W as the president that tanked the United States economy.  There is nothing you can do to affect the stock market on your own so don’t look at the president as your hero, look at your financial advisor as your hero.  Make sure you save yourself before you worry about saving the stock market.

So did you lose everything?  More than likely you did not.  The chances are also pretty good that whatever you lost in those two weeks you gained back at least 80% of it the next day.

Here is my advice on the stock market.  If you are within a couple years of retiring move everything to a low yield, low risk fund.  If you are 63 then the chances are pretty good you won’t be making any fortunes with your 401K or IRA in those last two years.  Protect yourself and move them while you wait for retirement.  If you are considering short term investments then consider real estate.  The stock market is a game played by experts that learn something new every day.  With the cost of housing hitting a low plateau right now you are better off investing in real estate than the stock market.

I stopped worrying about the stock market years ago.  What am I going to do to change it?  Why move my money around at my age when there is plenty of time to get that money back and then some?  Who is to say the blue chip stocks won’t tank too?

Eh, let the stock market ride and don’t let it bother you.  You pay fund managers to get ulcers over the stock market, why should you let it bring you down?

Politics As Usual

It is nice to see politicians pointing fingers and blaming each other for the near total collapse of the United States economy rather than working together to fix it.

This financial crisis is a shining example of how impossible it is for politicians to truly work together to solve problems and how desperately we need to scrap our entire political system and start over.

Hold on to your bank accounts folks, this one is going to get bad.  And you can blame ALL the politicians in DC for this, not just one side or the other.

Please W Just Stop

Yeah I know I have been complaining about George W Bush a lot lately but I can’t help it.  Today there was word that Russia is stepping up its attempts to strengthen relationships with Latin American countries such as Venezuela.  In fact, Russia is so serious about this that they are sending troops and supplies to be stationed in South America.  This is all in response to George W Bush’s insistance that Russia attacked the country of Georgia to try and keep Georgia a Russian satellite rather than allow Georgia to become a democratic nation.  It is also a direct response to W trying to continue to put troops and missiles in places like Georgia and pointing them at Moscow.  Yeah, no one would ever figure that one out.

W just stop.  Please, just stop.  Now you are picking fights with Russia?  Why?  What possesses you to continue to flex military and financial muscle that the United States does not have?  How many wars do you want to fight?  Now the Russians are putting troops and ships almost in our backyard because you refuse to stop putting troops and missiles in their backyard.  Good God W.  Seriously?  At what point do you realize that when it comes to international politics you are in way over your head and you should just stop and actually try and talk to our enemies rather than pointing a gun at them and trying to force them to blink?

Line Of Credit

The United States is in big financial trouble.  Our books don’t balance and there is definitely a bleak future ahead of us if something is not done.  In past years, whenever one of our allies would experience the same situation, instantly millions or billions of dollars in American aid would show up and save the day.  I remember vividly a situation a few years ago when Mexico was in desperate need of a few million dollars to balance their books or else.  We came through as we always have with the good ol’ American way of doing things which involves throwing money at every problem and then worrying about how we will pay for it a few generations down the line.

So now we are the ones in deep mud.  We need help because we have no way of balancing our own books.  Our president has been so infatuated the last seven and a half years with sending hundreds of billions of our dollars overseas to Iraq that he kind of lost sight of our own finances.  Why?  Because he always assumed that no matter how bad things got he could just buy his way out of it with our tax money.  That is exactly what he is trying to do.

In one fell swoop George W Bush is trying to atone for years of incompetence and mismanagement of our domestic affairs with a $700 Billion bail out plan of the American economy.  He is being so aggressive with his plan that he is planning on bailing out mortgages and financial institutions that haven’t even gone bad yet.  This guy is just killing us with his pre-emptive strike mentality.

So now what?  Do we have $700 Billion?  George W Bush seems to think so but the reality is that we do not.  If he had spent more time being the president of the United States rather than constantly running for president of Iraq then we probably would not even be here right now talking about a $700 Billion dollar bail out.  Many critics will point at this and say that this is why we should never elect a businessman as president.  I say that this a classic example of the American public acting a lot dumber than they really are.  Yes you should put a businessman in the White House but it should be a successful businessman.  George W Bush could not keep an oil company afloat and he nearly drove the Texas Rangers into the financial ground.  How in the world could over 50 million Americans think that an unsuccessful Texas oil man could qualify as president?  But they did think that, twice.  And now here we are.

So where are our friends?  Where is Mexico to help bail us out?  Where is Israel to help bail us out?  Where is England to help bail us out?  We have been so busy giving our money away and spending it on over-inflated war bills that we lost sight of the fact that no one likes us anymore.  George W Bush has systematically either given the finger to, or completely alienated, any possible allies we could ever have.  We have also lost sight of the fact that we have sustained a debt that no other nation in the world could sustain or even hope to survive.  No other nation in the world has an extra $700 billion including us.  But because of all of the posturing we did with the UN, the unauthorized invasions of countries that didn’t need to be invaded, the treaties we pulled out of, and the relationships that W has destroyed we no longer have a line of credit anywhere in the world.  Even if we still had friends none of them has $700 billion.

So here we stand in the final throes of the George W Bush presidency and the question still remains as to whether or not the United States can survive 3 more months of this incompetent leader in charge.  At this rate I would say that there is a really good chance that we won’t make it out of W’s reign as a superpower anymore.  It only took W seven and a half years to undo all of the work that took over 200 years to accomplish.  Bravo W, bravo.  I hope you are completely satisfied with the mess you have made.

The Republicans Are The Party Of The Lost

John McCain just chose 44 year old Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.  She is a first term governor of Alaska that just took office in 2006.  She has no federal government experience and barely has any experience as a governor.  She is not the governor of what you would call the most populated state in the Union.  John McCain is 72 years old.  No offense if you are 72 years old but being president and being 72 years old are quite a lethal combination.  John McCain would be 76 years old by the time he finished his first term.  If something were to happen to him this 44 year old with no experience in federal politics would be president.  Does that bother anyone else but me?

The very same day that McCain announced that he is taking on this greenhorn to be his running mate the GOP sends out a press release saying that Barack Obama, a guy who has been a United States senator and has served on high profile Senate committees, is not ready or qualified to be president of the United States.

I have said this before and I will stand by it, the people that will lose this election for McCain are the Republicans themselves.  John McCain is obviously pandering to the Hillary supporters and hoping that Hillary’s supporters are shallow enough to fall for this newest wrinkle to McCain’s campaign.  According to a CNN poll almost 48% are that shallow to this point.  But is pandering to Hillary supporters really a good way to try and develop a government to run this country?

John McCain is trying to win an election while Barack Obama is trying to become president.  The difference here is that Obama is doing and saying the things that indicate that he knows how to make long term effective decisions on what he intends to do while governing this country.  John McCain is doing what he has always done, he is following the public opinion polls and giving the country what they want right now regardless of whether or not it is a sound decision when it comes to governing the country.

People should vote for who they think is most qualified and not for the person that kisses the most babies.  John McCain’s campaign is a popularity contest built on no substance at all.  He is constantly using tricks and gimmicks to make up for poll numbers.

In the end it may work.  Then we will be stuck with a president with no vision who will make all of his policy decisions based on what the weekly polls say.  That is 4 years to not look forward to.

I really hope the American public is smarter than this.  I really hope people see past the McCain dog and pony show and see what is really going on.  The fact that the polls are so close right now indicates that a great many people are clueless as to what is really going on and that scares me.

Wake up people.  John McCain thinks you are idiots.  Don’t prove him right.  Don’t let a man with no vision run a country that is badly in need of a new course to help recover from the last Republican that had no vision.

Dreams

What are dreams?  Why do people have them?  What is a good use of a dream?  I would imagine that for many people it is not their dream to be waiting tables in a greasy spoon for less than minimum wage plus lousy tips 12 hours a day 6 days a week.  I am not knocking what people have to do for a living, I am just guessing that if you are in that situation you are not living your dream.  But what is a dream?  I think the best way to understand it is to determine what a dream is not.

A dream does not always make you a millionaire.  Some people often confuse unrealistic expectations with dreams.  It is an unrealistic expectation to expect anything you do to make you a million dollars.  Is it possible to make a million dollars?  Of course it is.  But if you chase your dream using the million dollar yardstick as your measuring tool then you will never realize the beauty of attaining your dream.  A dream is also not about being famous.  Many people that achieve their dream are people you have never heard of.  If your dream is to become famous then that is one thing, but chasing your dream cannot be clouded by the narcissistic notion that when you get there the world will know your name.

Everyone’s dream has a genesis in something attainable.  Even the dreams that involve becoming rich and famous start with something that is, at its core, not generated by fame or fortune.  A little kid will say that they want to be a rich and famous rock star when they grow up.  As that child grows the dream to be a rich and famous rock star may or may not fade but the desire to be a professional musician may become stronger.  Suddenly that child starts to mature a little and realizes that they could be a professional musician and be very happy.  As long as they are paying their bills by playing music then the dream has begun.  Will it turn into the rich and famous dream?  Maybe or maybe not.  But the point is that the core of the initial dream was something attainable and they went after that core and let the rest take care of itself.

Of course how far you take your dream depends on how driven you are to achieve it.  If you decide that you know what your dream is there is an easy way to know if it really is your dream or not.  If it is your dream then you will break it down into manageable pieces and go after it.  You will always have the drive to go after that dream and keep climbing.  If you ever lose that drive then it was just a fun idea and not a dream.  There is a big difference.

Other dreams do not involve screaming fans and the brightly lit stage.  Maybe your dream is to sell books and talk to customers about books all day long.  That is just as much a legitimate dream as the professional musician dream.  It is a dream because it is that thing you have always wanted to do with your life.  You start off at some entry level point and then climb from there.  Whether your dream is to sell books for a living or make records the point is that it is something that drives you and something you can look forward to doing every day of your life.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with dreams is that they run their dreams by other people to see what they think.  Someone that has never achieved their dream will always tell you that your dream is unattainable.  Why would you ask an accountant what they think of your dream to become a fiction writer?  They will tell you it cannot be done which is silly because there are plenty of fiction writers living their dream.  If they can do it then why not you?  The only people that will tell you that you cannot do something are the people that never did it themselves.  If you want to become a writer for a living then you need to talk to people that are already writing for a living.  They won’t tell you it can’t be done, they will tell you how to get started.

Dreams are a very personal thing and while you are chasing your dream you should stay focused and keep it to yourself.  Break it down into manageable parts and then chase your dream one step at a time.  Keep yourself grounded in reality by making sure that you are taking care of your business while chasing your dreams.  If being in the band means that you have to pump gas to keep the lights on and food on the table then you do that.  Keep your head screwed on straight and you are better equipped to chase a dream.  If you keep it right in front of you where you can always see it rather than way out of reach then chances are you will not only attain some level of success in your dream but you will probably have a lot of fun doing it.

Reboot

Being the father of an 18-year-old boy is an experience I would not trade for the world.  It helps that I have a good kid who seems to have a good head on his shoulders which he obviously got from his mother.  But I see all the mistakes and missed opportunities from my life and I try and guide him to not make the same mistakes and to not miss out on those opportunities.  They say you live vicariously through your kids but I am not sure I buy into that.  I think it is more of a case of you know, from experience, some of the things that work and don’t work in life and you just want to try and guide your kids away from the things that don’t work.

For my boy I just want him to be happy but I also want him to understand the importance of taking your responsibilities seriously which is something I did not do a great job of when I was his age.  He is off to a great start I think.  His whole future is in front of him and he is still not too sure what he wants to do but he does know that he wants to experience some of the things he may want to do before he makes up his mind.  That is a pretty mature outlook if you ask me.  Rather than jumping into something that he feels he is expected to do, my boy has decided to try things out first before he commits to any one thing.

His mother and I are supporting him as any parent would while he goes through this phase.  Every once in a while I will take him aside and just tell him what I know from my experience about the things he is going through.  To my surprise he listens most of the time and I even catch him saying things to his friends that I have told him in the past.  He seems to live by the things that his mother and I expect of him while still paving his own path in life.  He’s a good kid and I look at this as a chance at a reboot to the mistakes I have made.  If I can keep my kid away from the bad decisions I made when I was young, and there were a lot of them, then the world is his to take and to a parent that is a wonderful feeling.

Television Versus Movies – A Companion To My Column

If you read my column this week (which comes out on Wed Aug 20, 2008) then you were treated to the beginnings of what I am certain is one of the most incoherent rants you have ever read.  Through the magic of my blog I am able to expand on my point and let everyone know exactly what I was talking about.

First of all let me explain why the column needs a companion blog piece.  My space in the paper is limited and sometimes I can only get my thoughts started before I have to stop due to space constraints.  I kind of like the idea of starting a thought in my column and then finishing it here so I may do this more often although I can promise it won’t be every week.

Our country used to have a more innocent time.  Back when there were no 24 hour news networks to let us know every single detail that goes in the world every day and when there was no internet where every weirdo with an opinion and a keyboard could start their own blog and pollute the world.  Hollywood has always been a mirror of our society mostly because they realized a long time ago in Hollywood that people will buy what they either are most familiar with or fantasize about the most.  Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s movies were a fast growing experience for the world.  After a couple of decades of movies being shown in church basements and pretty much anywhere people could put up a white sheet it was decided that the movie going experience needed its own building.  Suddenly beautiful theaters were being built all over the country and people would gladly converge on their local movie theater sometimes 3 or 4 times a week to see the newest features or take in a cartoon or two.  Back then there was no other way to see the movies, or the cartoons, so theaters thrived and America was in love with movies.

The movies themselves were of a high quality as well.  There were no remakes to be done and no plot elements to steal and recycle because it was all still so very new.  This was the golden age of movies.  This was when America was in love with going to the movies and where our society got to see itself in the mirror known as Hollywood.  Whatever society will accept Hollywood would give to them.  The stories were original, the acting was top notch even by today’s standards, the comedy was funny, the movies were entertaining, and the country was at peace with itself. 

Then World War II came and changed everything.  That innocence started to fade a little but America clung to its sense of self and tried so very hard to maintain that “thank you,” “yes sir,” wearing a suit to church on Sunday feeling.  The 1950’s hit and Johnny had come marching home with money in his pocket and the American dream floating in his head.  Movies were even more popular after World War II as now the idea of a Drive-in theater was catching on and soon people all over the country were watching movies and living the good life.

Television came into our homes in the 1950’s.  At first very few people owned a television and programming usually consisted of a very badly planned and written live show sponsored by a beloved cigarette company or alcohol manufacturer.  As more people got on to the television bandwagon the networks worked to improve their programming and bring people more of what they wanted to see.  Soon classic shows like the Milton Berle Show or any of the many detective serials started to hit the airwaves and America was in love with Hollywood all over again but this time it was the television.

Seeing a chance to rekindle those golden years of the 1930’s and 1940’s the networks started to rely on broadcasting those old movies that everyone seemed to really love so much.  So television hit its golden age and people were reliving their youth through the television broadcasts of those old movies.  Television and movies were in harmony and that great mirror of society, Hollywood, helped to maintain our innocence by feeding us the things we all saw in ourselves.

Anything that attains a high level of power is bound to eventually get corrupted.  Television became the true mirror of our society and as the real money making potential of television was starting to become realized it was soon starting to change.  Rather than being a mirror of our society television began to take the role of a molder and shaper of our society.  Those that ran television on through the 1960’s quickly realized they could change people’s attitudes and habits just by using a little clever programming.  Television never physically touched you, it never threatened you, but you were obliged to obey.

Movies started to see great advances in technology and soon any idea could be brought to life in a movie.  Hollywood had turned into a factory and by the 1970’s movies were measured in their profit potential rather than their content.  Soon it became apparent to the movie makers that if they wanted to get people off the couch and away from the television they would need to keep pushing the envelope and bringing more and more fantastic things to the screen.  Some things were fantastically good and some were fantastically bad.  Soon everyone wanted to make a movie and you had movie studios springing up everywhere all designed to make a quick buck. 

As television shaped our society and the movies were twisted into a profit center our society began to change.  People wanted things faster, cheaper, and easier.  Cable television came on to the scene in the 1970’s and suddenly there were hundreds of channels that needed programming.  The quality of television was desitned to drop dramatically but the grip it had on society was strengthened even more by a false sense of variety.

Now the goal of Hollywood is to spend more money than the other guy and make a movie that is visually spectacular with little thought to the story.  Television has so dilluted itself with literally thousands of channels all trying to fill a 24 hour day that it takes a huge shock value to get noticed anymore. 

Look at our movies and our television now compared to the 1950’s.  In the 1950’s we were on the rise, we had money and a deep sense of exploration, and we were so concerned with quality that we would not accept anything that did not completely entertain us.  A perfect mirror of American society.

Today we live in a fast paced, I want it yesterday, quality is secondary to profit and speed kind of society and our television and movies mirror that.  For a while television tried to mold how we acted and politicians and businessmen all jumped on television as a way of controlling the people.  Politicians wanted you so scared that you would have to vote for them because they promised to protect you.  Businessmen wanted you too scared to leave your house so all you would do is watch television and pick up the phone to order the newest all in one blender, fly swatter, and juicer.  Ew.  But it worked.  Americans were so terrified by television that they could not look away and revenues soared.  Then thousands of other stations got in on the act and the effect wore off.  That was until reality television and 24 hour news networks.

Is it any wonder that fast food, alcohol, cars, and the internet are some of the largest advertisers on television?   They want you so scared that you need to run out to get a meal that is made as fast as possible in a car you bought from that commercial you saw.  Then when you are home you can search the internet for things you shouldn’t be doing as you slowly get drunk and pass out. 

Movies are no help.  They continue to look so hard for that next great special effect or shocking scene that will get people out to the theaters that the stories have become secondary.  Remakes and bad scripts have been pouring out of Hollywood for years and it is all a reflection of who we are right now.

There is no substance to American society and television and movies reflect that.  People want more things faster and they don’t care about the quality and our entertainment reflects that.  When our society had substance then so did television and movies.  Today we are so shallow that we can see the bottom of the pool through the murky water and we don’t care.

Maybe I will never make complete sense with this but my point really is that a close observation of our television and movie habits is the indicator for where our society stands.  If there are thousands of channels on television then that means that there is enough people watching to support all of that.   If movie scripts are shallow but yet people will pay $10 to see Robert Downey Jr in blackface because it is contorversial then that is the kind of movies that get made. 

I guess I am just longing for the day when quality matters again.  Maybe then we can start to slow down our seemingly frantic race to oblivion and bring everything into focus.  Maybe then we can start to get the kind of movies that made Alfred Hitchcock famous or the kind of television that made Uncle Milty a sensation.  Maybe someday soon someone will find the brakes on this runaway train and save us all.  I really hope so.

Credibility

This one will probably be short and sweet because all I wanted to point out is the incredible audacity that George W Bush possesses.

Today W released a statement condemning Russia for invading Georgia and W has the nerve to send Condolezza Rice to Russia to try and tell the Russians to stop what they are doing. 

After all of the thumbing of his nose he has done at the entire world community, especially the UN which was set up to help keep peace in the world, and after the thousands of people who have died because W felt the very strong need to invade Iraq for no good reason, who the hell does W think he is trying to tell anyone that they need to curb their militaristic ways?

It takes an unbelievable amount of ego and ignorance to pull what W has pulled since he has taken office and then have the nerve to tell anyone they cannot invade a country.  The issue here is not whether Russia is right or wrong, the issue is that W has put the United States in a position where our clout as world peace negotiator is completely lost.