Jamie's Conspiracy Theory and other fun thoughts on the current economic crisis and why Obama isn't helping...

Last night at McDonald's (we were killing time before our Ash Wednesday Service), Jamie and I ran into a friend who wanted to talk stocks w/Jamie. Well, he really wanted Jamie to tell him that his broker is an idiot and that BOA stock is a good buy right now, but Jamie wouldn't tell him that! Jamie instead said that he is now of the opinion that President Obama and the Dems in Congress are deliberately manipulating the market in a downward spiral in order to create economic panic and thereby make their social programs (nationalized health care, for example) and big government appealing to the masses. After all, the last time the country was in a depression was when era of big government got started under the New Deal.

I have a hard time disagreeing with Jamie here. Every single time the President speaks, the market tanks. If I were President and the market tanked every time I opened my mouth, I'd shut the hell up. Our President either (1) doesn't see that glaringly obvious correlation, or (2) he doesn't care. He seems to be a smart enough man, so my money is on #2. Common sense dictates that if the man cared about my 401K becoming a 201K, he'd stop making the market go down.

My dad called today in a kerfluffle because of some tax that is going to increase energy prices. Since the energy costs will be passed on to the consumer, the government is going to give up to $800 a year to poor families to cover that increased cost. Now, I'm all about charitable giving when people decide to give. I'm a sucker for charitable giving (Jamie would wholeheartedly agree with that, I ususally only own up to it at tax time when I have to give him my reciepts for the year and endure a harsh lecture about how much more we could give in the future if I'd stop spending it all now). What I do not like is when the government decides to take away my choices re: charitable giving by increasing my taxes to increase their spending on wasteful government programs. Moreover, Obama's current economic plans penalize success and take away incentives to do well. Why should I earn more than 249K a year when the government is going to take an ever increasing chunk of that income to support other Americans? The private sector is more effective than government. Capitalism works. It isn't perfect, but it generally rewards hard work, grit and determination. Look at the United States in the 80s under Reagan. Compare that with the Soviet Union. The US (a capitalist society) thrived. The USSR (a socialist state) collapsed. Even FDR's treasury secretary conceded that the New Deal was an enormous failure. Yet we have a democratic Congress and President currently pushing through a budget with a record deficit in the TRILLIONS to support more big government/socialist programs.

I think Congress and the President need a history lesson. And I think the country needs a new Ronald Reagan.

Random Stuff

So the economy sucks. Jamie still has a job, of course, but every so often will look at me, sigh and say, "We're in the worst economy since the Great Depression. Could you watch your spending?" I haven't had a pedicure since Christmas, and I don't remember exactly why, but I really deserved that last one. However, since we're in a recession, I'm saving my pedi money for doggy day care. I'm all about priorities.

Lest you think I'm as awful Paris Hilton as that sounds (I do re-read what I write), my major shopping vices are Target and Dierbergs. With Costco thrown in every other month or so. It is not like I'm dropping a wad at Saks frequently. Or really, ever. I'm buying groceries and Glade plug ins/detergent.

We are getting the hardwood floors screened this week. My neighbors' hardwoods look so much nicer than mine. Probably because the Clampetts didn't reside in their homes before they bought them (I'm sure the previous owners were very nice people, but good housekeepers? Not so much). Seriously, the hardwoods weren't so hot when we moved in. Five years later, they look like crap because they desperately need another coat of urethane. So I got a referral from a friend w/beautiful hardwoods and got a quote from her company. Then I got a second quote (b/c that's what responsible people do) from the company the refinished the church's hardwood floors. Unfortunately due to the fact that I used Orange Glo cleaner on my floors (I'm pretty sure Satan himself makes that stuff--ditto Murphy's Oil Soap, do NOT use that crap on your floors) they wouldn't screen the floors, they wanted to refinish him. Which costs three times as much and takes three times as long. Um, yeah--not so much when the Dow sinks lower every day and Jamie is sending me emails w/YouTube clips about some housewife buying a month of groceries for her family of four on $50. Seriously. He sent me that in an email. I didn't watch it. Like I have time for obsessive coupon clipping with my Facebook addiction. We're in a recession and I shopped at Aldi tonight ($.35 Mac and Cheese AND wine, I really like that place). I love Chase's age b/c he was fascinated by the pay-carts and off brands. Hey Mom, I found some Lucky Charms that aren't, can we get them? It was like a big fun adventure. Until Cass sneezed green snot and lost her paci...then, not such an adventure. And even though Chase was totally pissed that he didn't get to see the pay-cart in action, thank you Aldi shopper lady who gave me a quarter and saved me from taking my cranky toddler BACK to return my cart hell.

I need to think about something happy. Shermy's BFF was over TWICE today. He's been sacked out since Diesel left around 6pm. I haven't been walking him since Cass and I have both been feeling craptastic, hopefully tomorrow it will be decent walking weather after her nap b/c I'm feeling like a slug. But exercise is completely unappealing when you can't breathe...

I'm off to finish my bible study for Wednesday. I'm the geek who reads ahead. Why wasn't I like that in school when I was getting grades? Maybe I will finish my Masters just for fun...

Febrile Seizure

My sister's latest blog talks about Bomber's ruptured eardrums. She got a phone call today from me saying, "If motherhood were a poker game, I'd take your two ruptured eardrums and raise you a febrile seizure." Yes, it's a warped sense of humor, but like my mom's friend Pat used to say, "Laughing about it is better than crying about it."

So yes, Cassie had a febrile seizure this afternoon. It was absolutely horrifying and scary but I held it together because that's what you do when you're a mom. the ped gave me "Mom of the Year" b/c I was so calm. I was freaking out on the inside, but totally freaking out and melting down was not going to help Cassie. There is a 60-70% chance it won't happen again, and a 99.5% chance that she won't have any seizure issues as an adult. I'm good with those odds, and will prep all future caregivers what to do if another one happens, just in case. Just in case you ever wondered: in the event of a seizure, turn the person on their side (to prevent choking) and try to keep them from hurting themselves (protect their head from the floor). If it happens again--there will be testing. But hopefully we won't have to go there.

She's on antibiotics--the ped suspects either a sinus infection or the start of pneumonia. Knowing how sick Chase was with pneumonia in '07, my money is on a sinus infection or influenza, but she's the dr and I trust her.

I would have gone to the bar once Cass went to bed (Mama deserves a martini), but Jamie brought me an ice cream cone after Chase's batting practice. Ice cream is just as good as a martini and my clothes don't smell like bar. Mad props as usual to my Dad who was here to meet Chase when he got off the bus so I could rush Cass to the ped (he was coming anyway, but after the seizure, I rushed out of here so fast that she didn't even have shoes on). My dad is a lifesaver.

Any prayers you could send Cassie's way for quick healing are much appreciated. Ditto Brady (because I've heard ruptured eardrums are comparable to natural childbirth in terms of pain and my tasteless poker joke is in no way attempting to minimize the abject misery of that) and Brewer (ear infection, too and he's only 5 mths old) and Hayden (clearly when one of my sister's kids are sick, they're all sick). Apparently my sister and I passed on our puny genes...

So it IS possible to have a lower approval rating than Bush when he left office and NOT be a member of Congress...

If your name is Timothy Geithner, your approval rating is around 17% right now. So much for HOPE and CHANGE. I'm hoping for a change in 2012 (and hoping the country survives until then). Despite better than expected retail sales news for the month of January, the market tanked again today, only to recover when Obama talked about giving my tax dollars to people who can't afford their house payments. Awesome! Really, what were we thinking five years ago when we bought a house we could afford anyway. Silly us and our financial responsibility. We should have doubled our square footage (and mortgage) and bought a house we couldn't afford and let the government bail us out. Because apparently our "living, breathing Constitution" not only provides for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but also houses we can't afford and (God help us) socialized medicine for all. Yay! Seriously, when did documents become living things anyway? I must have slept through that whole paper breathing thing in biology class...

I've got more, but I need to go to bed, lest I prove my Dad's snarky comment of "you're on the Internet 20 hours a day and only sleep like five hours a night to feed your addiction" true. How does he know that, anyway?