Issues

OK, so just a couple of probably unrelated thoughts that have come to me over the weekend as I interacted with friends. Thank you Hubby & M & G for sparking me off.

Bottom Line: I have issues...

Issue Number One: The W Economy.

I believe that the tanking of the economy has been coming for quite some time. Thanks in part to what started in January of 2001 as a very strong economy, and evolved by January of 2004 into the terms-for-dummies mortgages that were available at the height of the housing boom. Ones that featured interest-only-payments with adjustable rates that had to be refinanced in two years- -you know, after the value of such homes had dropped so much that they could NOT be refinanced. Yeap, this was the catalyst for the banks going under (or threatening to, pre-Bailout). How is this W's economic fault you ask? He pushed congress to approve legislation to make homes available to everyone, not just people that could actually afford them. He didn't care how it got done, he wanted magic wands waved and people in homes, creating the illusion of a still booming economy...

All of this magician-mortgage bullshit was instituted to build American confidence in the post 9-11 world, and distract the public from the fact that W had not sent our troops into Afghanistan ( because home-owners are less likely to form an angry mob and lynch someone--the authorities know where to look for you). Instead, W got us into another war in Iraq to finish Daddy's war and make his defense contractor buddies--like his vice president-- a whole lotta money at the expense of more American soldiers' lives than Viet Nam. Not that Cheney cared, he shot his own hunting partner for crissakes ( how much do you want to bet that the real story there was they got into an argument over something pathetically 'WTF'-ish ... like the bet between Randolph and Mortimer Duke in Trading Places ). Besides, Cheney doesn't have time to give a shit about soldiers, he's too busy drinking water while pulling Bush's strings so it appears that W is talking.

The eventually-it's-gonna-hit-the-fan-mortgage-problem had been festering for a few years, and then the powers that be came to the conclusion that they could get away with being even more greedy and self-serving. Triggering phase two of sell-out-your-country-for-fun-and-profit; a massive spike in gas prices. Since the beginning of W's second term, gas prices have been see-sawing at unprecedented levels. That, in turn, made every other price on every other thing go up because of shipping (aka fuel) costs. It's only become globally obvious this year though, because prices surpassing $120 per barrel translated into over $4 per gallon at the pumps. SUV driving families had to decide between driving to work, and putting food on the table--and the mortgage simply wasn't an option at all. Their status symbols had become their financial nooses. Pretty soon, the rest of the house of cards toppled, and it stopped being just the SUV drivers and those with families. Now it has spread to the majority of the populace, including the Prius driving singles. And how exactly did those gas prices get so high? Couldn't W have stopped all that? Of course, but W was helping out some more buddies, including Daddy Bush and some other people who are related to that guy we're NOT going after for masterminding the 9-11 attacks. Difference with this phase of W's sell-out is that he's also doing it to line his own pockets.

To be fair to W, he kind of had to line his own pockets. He's been such a shit president he won't be able to get a book deal on an Etch-A-Sketch. Add to that his abysmal speech giving dis-abilities, and he also won't be able to get a speaking engagement in a preschool. He had to take advantage of being President and make enough to last him the rest of his life... It's not like he's going to spend those ill-gotten gains making Crawford, TX the future home of a Presidential Library-- unless it houses comics and coloring books.


Issue Number Two: Drama Queens.

I can spin some bullshit, but really, it's usually with a smirk on my face and a smile in my voice that lets others know I'm spinning it. I do it for laughs or to make a point very-obviously, not to try to get away with something or manipulate others. Unlike a Drama Queen.

There is a huge difference between someone that tends toward the dramatic, and a full-blown Drama Queen. A dramatic person will stub a toe, and then limp all day so that people will ask them what's wrong and they can evoke a little bit of sympathy as they tell you that they stubbed their toe. It's no biggie, thanks for noticing.

A drama-queen, is a whole other snowball--one that is rolling downhill and growing to epic proportions fast. If Lucy stubs her toe and tells a Drama Queen, said Drama Queen will start making phone calls to alert the media (or their version of it anyway). The first call will have Lucy breaking the toe, the fifth will have her with a broken leg, and the twentieth will have Lucy's car flipped over on an icy road (in August) down in the ditch, at the bottom of a ravine, with the doors pinned as water rushed in and she had to hold her breath for 5 minutes as she kicked out the windshield to barely escape and crawl her battered and exhausted body to shore where Lassie found Lucy, alerted the authorities, and she is now comatose in ICU after being airlifted to the insert-nearest-big-city-name-here hospital. It's a miracle she survived, sorry it took so long for the Drama Queen to alert you. Hopefully, if you send flowers, they will get there before Lucy flat-lines. Of course Lucy has no idea about any of this. She just stubbed her toe, got over it in two minutes, and is busy making dinner when the doorbell rings with the 5-foot-tall-get-well-arrangement.

Drama Queens thrive on having their world in full-tilt chaos and they bring their whirling dervish with them no matter who they talk to or where they go. I'm convinced that this is because they are so clinically miserable, that it's easier to focus on the circus they create. At least in the circus, they are in control instead of real-life which controls them. They are Alice down the rabbit hole, and just as clueless that they're making all this garbage up in their own heads.


Conclusion of the Two Discussed Issues: You will be much happier in your life, if you don't allow anyone to feed you bullshit and call it chocolate.

Issues solved.

Hey, will ya look at that, they're not so un-related after all...