I think i need my head read

You know what ? I hate cryptic dreams sometimes. Dont get me wrong - sometimes the absurdity of my own subconcious amuses me, but sometimes it annoys me no end. I especially dislike it when i wake up in the middle of a crazy dream, because then there is no chance of making it to the end and maybe making some sense of it. I hate that - i'm left completely puzzled for at least an hour later. How can i enjoy my peanut butter on toast for breakfast when i'm puzzled ?

I've already posted about my Uncle Steve the Big Red Alligator dream, which has got to be one of my all time weirdest dreams, but the dream/s i had last night rank right up there on the crazy list. So in the first one i was back nannying in the US, back with the same host family, but my room upstairs wasnt quite the same. It was configured slightly differently but i didnt have stairs - i had a slide ( or a slippery dip as we call them in Australia ). So, if you can imagine, i had a few stairs to get TO the room, but to get back down i had a slide that ended in the kitchen. Plus, i was naked for the majority of the dream. Whats up with that? I'm running along the incredibly long hallway - like absurdly long, 50 rooms long - with the the three year old, and i'm naked; I'm driving the boys to school and i'm naked; i'm folding the washing in the living room and i'm naked. The only time i wasnt naked in the dream was when i was introducing the boys to my aunt and 6 month old cousin. What the freaking hell ?

And in my second dream, i was back working retail at the place i worked before i went to the US. But instead of being indoors, it was like the shop was surrounded by walls but had no roof, and i was manning a register in the boiling hot sun. I was frying people - frying! And nobody cared. And all these people i went to school with, people who were grades above that i was never friends with, they all worked there too. But they got shady spots to work in, unlike poor old me who was turning lobster like in the sun. My old bosses just walked right on past and i started yelling about suing the arses of the company for letting me burn. What is up with that ?

See, you've just read what i dreamt - none of it makes sense, right ? What is any of that supposed to mean ? So i'm naked and burning, which might make sense if i lived in the middle ages and was afraid of being outed as witch, but doesnt make so much sense right here and now. They were both set in places i worked in the past, but so what ? Whats going on there? Does anybody have any ideas here ?

Seriously, please tell me i am not the only one who is mildly nuts like this....

In The Tank

They’re not even embarrassed about how obviously they’re in the tank for Obama. Rather, they seem to feel righteous about it. Our media elite are so smug and insular in their world view, they don’t realize or care about how out of touch they’ve become with ordinary Americans - how we live or how we think. Paradoxically, our media elite see themselves as champions of the oppressed, of “minorities,” and other “victims” of “American oppression.” They’re embarrassed when ordinary Americans express our patriotism or our faith in God, considering it childlike and unsophisticated. Their friends are far too sophisticated to look at the world that way.

They know Obama goes to church and professes love of country, but they figure he does those things because he has to in order to get elected. And they want to see him elected because he’s one of them. He pronounces words as they do and he went to Ivy League school as they did. And like them, he sees the world from a hard left perspective. If we wonder why they don’t go after Obama’s William Ayers connection, that’s why. It doesn’t alarm them. Ayers fits with mainstream Democrat politics in Chicago. And why not expose racism in the Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Because they’re not alarmed by him either. He fits in with their world view too - way better than Justice Clarence Thomas does. Wright and Obama profess a belief in God, but it looks as if Thomas actually has one and lives his life accordingly. To our elitist media, that qualifies him as an intellectual lightweight and not qualified to serve on the US Supreme Court.

Seldom, if ever, do they question Barack Obama’s qualifications to be president, though his is the thinnest of resumes. Most of his career was as a “community organizer.” What the heck is that? And he served in the state senate? Big deal. He avoided nearly every controversial vote that came up when he was there, voting “present” instead of yes or no. US Senate? If ever there was a club for political prima donnas, it would be the US Senate and Obama did only two years there before running for president full-time.

Obama wants to be our chief executive, but his only executive experience was as Chairman of the Annenberg Challenge - a position Bill Ayers secured for him. Obama cited his Annenberg tenure in an unsuccessful congressional campaign, but has hidden it since and no wonder - it was a $50 million boondoggle which purported to raise standards for Chicago schools, which showed no measurable change when the money was all spent. Most of the money was authorized by Obama and spent by Ayers and his radical friends to push Chicago’s educational establishment further to the left than it already was. I remember getting $25,000 of Annenberg Challenge Grant money here in Fryeburg around the same time. A few other teachers and I trained students in the use of digital imaging technology and local history. I’m proud of what we did with just a tiny fraction of what Obama spent. The Chicago Democratic establishment, however, is trying to block reporters from investigating records of where Obama’s and Ayers’ $50 million went.

Then there’s Obama’s purchase of his Chicago mansion with convicted felon Tony Rezco - possibly using money from Iraqi/British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, implicated in the infamous Iraqi “Oil For Food” debacle, the biggest financial scandal in world history until the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Obama is tangled up in that one too through his close associations with infamous Fannie Mae executives James Johnson and Franklin Raines (who, as CEO, took $90 million in bonuses). Johnson headed Obama’s vice presidential search committee and Raines advised his campaign on housing issues.

Since McCain selected Sarah Palin for his VP running mate, however, investigative reporters have swarmed over Alaska looking for dirt. Palin’s got at least as much experience as Obama, but all we hear about is her lack of it. She epitomizes ordinary Americans and the elite media’s contempt for her is sickeningly obvious. When she galvanized the GOP’s conservative base, they declared relentless, all-out war on her. They dug into her private life and even hung out her seventeen-year-old daughter to dry. They seemed to have Palin on the ropes until the debate with Biden last week. They were expecting Biden to knock her out, but instead, she took control and spoke directly to the American people, even looking into the camera and winking.

I’ve been watching presidential politics a long time from both sides of the spectrum and I’ve never seen the media go as softly on a candidate as they have on Obama. Nor have I ever seen them attack anyone as vociferously as they have gone after Palin. The elite media’s power is waning, but possibly still powerful enough to deliver a radical leftist into the oval office in January.

Oh lord, now i'm starting to count down....

I cant believe its almost the 8th day of the month and i've only made one post. What in the crap is up with that ? What have i been doing ? Truth be told, not s very much, but hey, it was a long weekend. I was content to sleep in, eat a late lunch, and watch bad cable tv. I introduced my father to " Date My Mom " and " Room Raiders " on MTV - i secretly think he liked them ( i'm sure i caught him watching that horrid soap " Passions " once ..... ).

So, now that the long weekend is over the next thing on my calendar that i'm looking forward to is my sisters 18th birthday in 17 days time. For those of you who dont know, 18 is the legal drinking age here in Australia so its the birthday where you get to go to a bar for the first time and get trashed with your friends and your older sister. Umm, i mean, you get taken out and shown how to drink responsibly. Of course thats what i mean. So everyone in our immediate family plus my best friend P is taking my sister out for dinner and then we're moving downstairs to the bar. I kind of like that my sister invited P, and i know P appreciates it to, seeing as she doesnt have a sister of her own. And, o0f course, my sister has friends of her own but she's going out with them the night after her birthday. She's chosen to go out with her family first ? Aint that sweet?

Anyhoo, i'm not sure why exactly i'm so looking forward to someone else's birthday. It is probably mostly because i havent been out since P's hens party ( the night of the Mary incident ). I mean, i went from going out every Saturday night, leaving the house at around 10:30am and getting home around 3am, to not going out at all for an entire 6 months. Its been a big jump and, to be honest, i've missed it sometimes. I've missed Mary's sisters ( lets call her MS ) friendship, for sure, but i've also just missed the atmosphere of a crowded bar, dj playing, people dancing, escaping the hot dance floor for some fresh outside. I wasnt like a disco diva or anything, i just liked being around so many people, even if i hardly knew any of them. I've missed sitting in MS's bedroom drinking a bottle of cheap champagne before we went out, gossiping and laughing our arses off. I've missed that.

So, come the evening of October 24th i'm going to put on a slinky dress, some cute heels, do my makeup all pretty like and i'm taking my sister out - for the photographic evidence please refer back here after that date, or find yourself my Facebook page....

Gossip

Last night in Bible study we talked about Gossip. Very fun. It's amazing that we sat there saying how bad gossip was and I looked across the room, and there were people(girls) gossiping. It took forever to get the discussion over with because we kept talking. And I think we scared Mrs. Sharron on her first night in there with us.

Things we learned....

1. Evan can make a good list of things that are bad

Gossip is bad

Drugs bad

Fighting bad, unless it's in self defence or you just feel like fighting, again from the point of a teenage guy

The list goes on but then I wouldn't have learned anything else

2. Landon is wearing a blue shirt( we learned that playing telephone)

3. The people in the bible study like to play the "Uh-Uh" game and get really into it. (I did get a video and i will post it)

4. Gossip can destroy your reputation

5. Christian guys have one of the hardest paths to take in life, but it's worth it

6. Carson likes to draw on himself

7. even a youth minister can get pulled over by the cops. As proven by Mike last night.

All in all it was a very good study. I met people I wouldn't have met otherwise. It was very fun.

Talk later

Pretty awesome quote

so Wednesday night we were talking about being Inspired and what it takes to inspire people. Mike went around and asked different people what they thought it takes to be inspired. One of the guys answered "To Inspire you must first be inspired."
I think that pretty sweet. And it's deep if you think about.

I heart the weekend

Its raining, and its beautiful. It doesnt rain much where i live, the majority of my state has been in drought for 7 or more years, and so rain is always appreciated. Even though its a long weekend, and i wished for sunshine, I wont complain about the rain. Its still a beautiful day - the sky is pregnant with rain clouds but every so often the sun will poke through, and the air has that beautiful, freshg, earthy smell to it. There is nothing like a spring rainstorm.
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Yes, its Labour Day long weekend here in New South Wales, Australia. I have very little planned, which did make me a little sad, but I am now choosing to say I am up for anything spontaneous. If i had plans, i wouldnt be able to fly by the seat of my pants, would i ? I have my regular session at the gym this afternoon, and we are having a family BBQ later this evening ( prawn skewers, steaks, chicken kebabs, salads, potato bake..... yum! ), but that is as far as my plans extend. So, for example, if some guy who has been wooing me via Match.com decided he wanted to have a coffee or something tomorrow or holiday Monday, i would have no need to turn him down - would i ?
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I am currently watching a countdown of the Top 100 Rock song clips of all time. These countdowns always amuse me because i wonder who actually gets to vote. Is it the experts - the Rolling Stone journalists, the critics and the music programmers ? Or is it the punters, the Avergae Joes who buy the records and watch the clips ? Because i am pretty sure the so called experts would vote in a lot of stuff that we mere mortals probably dont really like all that much. Plus, these kind of lists are always somewhat controversial. I mean, just what exactly makes " Stairway to Heaven " by Led Zeppelin better than " Bohemian Rhapsody " by Queen ? And why was " Hotel California " by The Eagles completely missing from the top 20 of a similar countdown i watched last month ? What a travesty.
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So, Happy long weekend to everyone who is having one and for those who arent - too bad, so sad. Just kidding - enjoy whatever time you may have off !

Teaching the Crisis

I’m responsible to teach economics and current events to eighth graders - woven into a 20th century US History course - and this sub-prime mortgage crisis is the biggest story of the year. It’s complicated, charged with politics during election season, and nobody seems to understand the big picture. I plowed ahead anyway and started by asking my students how many of them had money in the bank. Nearly all did. “Do you know what banks do with the money you put in there?” I asked. Most realized that banks lend that money so people can buy houses, cars, businesses, and so forth. We discussed how banks make money by charging people more interest on loans than they pay to depositors like them.

Then I told them of the three houses my wife and I purchased or built, how much of a down payment we put on each, how much we borrowed for them - how we fixed up the first two, sold them, and used profits to pay for much of building our present house. I told them about our employment history, our credit rating, and the factors that made our mortgage contracts examples of “prime mortgages” because we never borrowed more than we could afford to pay back and never missed a payment. Then I explained that the economic crisis was caused by “sub-prime mortgages” - banks (encouraged by government) lend money to people who can’t or won’t pay it back, either because they borrowed too much, because they were unreliable, because they fell on hard times, or because they didn’t put any of their own money down and can walk away from their payment without losing anything.

Then I wrote on the board and explained that what sound like names for people are actually crude attempts to phonetically pronounce the acronyms for FNMA - the Federal National Mortgage Association, and FHLMC - the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, respectively. I explained that local banks negotiate mortgage contracts such as mine but have limited money to lend, so Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy those contracts. Mine was for $95,000 at 6% for fifteen years with monthly payments of $801.66 and my house was worth way more than that. My contract can be sold - and has been twice, to Bank America and again to Wells Fargo Bank. My contract is worth more than $95,000 because of the interest I pay. By selling it, my local bank made a profit and got more money to lend so others around here can buy and build houses. That keeps carpenters, plumbers, electricians, excavators, dry-wall contractors, and others busy, giving us a healthy economy.

Most students understood this much. Then it got more complicated.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by government, I explained. Together, they control $6 trillion in mortgages - half of all American mortgages. When they buy a mortgage, they guarantee it - like a parent cosigning a loan for a teenager to buy a car. If the teenager doesn’t make payments, the parent must. When Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac wanted to sell sub-prime mortgages, few wanted to buy because they were such a bad risk by nature. So, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bundled sub-prime mortgages with prime mortgages. Those packages became “Mortgage-backed Securities” which could be sold and re-sold because buyers believed that if they failed, government would fix everything - be the parent making payments for delinquent teenagers, so to speak. Wall Street jumped on and rode the ensuing boom. So long as house prices continued rising, sub-prime mortgagees could flip their properties and even profit, but as soon as prices leveled off and then fell as they inevitably do, foreclosures skyrocketed and it all caved in. Businesses most heavily invested caved with it, including the allegedly private Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Neither the Republican Congress nor the Democrat Congress saw it coming and they should have. Neither Clinton nor Bush saw it either. Some individuals did, but they didn’t blow the whistle loudly enough. Anyway, nobody listened.

Who is responsible for sub-prime mortgages at the root of all this? There’s plenty of blame to go around, but it started with the Carter Administration’s “Community Reinvestment Act” in the seventies. Standards to screen bad borrowers were relaxed. Buyers flooded the market and prices went up in the 1980s housing boom. Then President Clinton ordered standards lowered still further in 1995 so more “minorities” and other low-income people could own homes. Welfare payments qualified as “income.” Even illegal immigrants got mortgages with no money down. Uncle Sam became Jolly John. All this triggered a second housing boom now gone bust. Trouble is, this bust is so big,“experts” predict it may bring us all down with it unless the federal government solves the mess it created. Are they Chicken Littles and Henny Pennys warning us the sky is falling? Government wants us to buy back those dubious securities for up to $700 billion and sort out good from bad, claiming taxpayers will get their money back and more. Others doubt it.

Nearly every student learned something about the problem, but none understood it all. Neither do senators, congressmen, or voters. Neither do I. Not fully. Still, many think government must do something. If we do, hopefully we won’t make things worse.