Wednesday, September 17, 2008

AIG Won't Collapse and Other Things to Not Worry About

Since the last time I wrote, (I’ve been busy, get over it), my grandson turned 2, I got promoted with no raise, Obama beat Hillary, Lizard Lips Pelosi made a fool out of herself (and wrote a book I hear), my Dad turned 80, my Dad died, and the day after the funeral my son found out he’s going to Mexico at the end of the year for 2 years. Oh yeah, and the economic underpinnings of the United States fell apart, and Ike devastate half the country.

Not much going on otherwise.

Here’s the deal, I’ve been watching all of this go by wondering how much more can we all take? Gasoline used to be a big deal, until milk prices went up to match. That used to mean something until the country got into the mortgage and insurance business (is there an owner’s discount for the tax payers? I could use some cheaper insurance). All of that, it turns out doesn’t mean squat when you take a nearly 80 year-old man to a 2-year-old’s birthday party. I watched both of them. They seemed to act about the same. The 2-year-old was more active of course, and he was in charge. Whatever anyone else was doing he had to do it, or have it. He was so innocent and 2…everything was his and no one could touch it.

How do we lose that innocence? I mean Pelosi was 2 once. How did she become such a snake? How does the world fret about things like Internet Explorer versus Google’s Chrome explorer, and why does it matter? Why do people have to be greedy to the point that they put Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, and the government decides to nationalize the financial industry, and who in their right mind thinks that’s a good idea? Nobody really knows what to do. That’s the one thing that is very clear.

We are gambling with our future, but we don’t know what the odds are. As long as somebody is making money damn the torpedoes (in this case the public) full speed ahead. My Dad proved you can’t take it with you. He spent a lifetime trying to leave a legacy. He did. The world doesn’t change though. There are plenty of people’s lives he changed while he was alive with the houses he built, but we still are in Iraq. He helped a bunch of kids in little league, but we still now own AIG as a country. He left a bunch of assets to his kids, but Obama still might win despite the fact his financial advisors are, among others, the same people who killed Freddie and Fannie.

Nope. In the end my Dad lies entombed in a wall with a hammer in one hand, his wallet in the other and a baseball beside him. The tragedy is the two-year-old didn’t know him, neither did his kids, and he blamed that on them (I know. I was there when he said it). And guess what…Pelosi is still licking her lips, Hillary is still a woman and a Senator (and still married to that jack-ass), Obama is still a left wing socialist, McCain still will try to shake things up, and will if he dies in office leaving us with Palin in charge. A nice lady but the glasses don’t do a thing for her. I don’t know maybe she’ll do just fine. Then again someone once told me how sound a company AIG was and that they weren’t going to go anywhere overnight.