Sunday, February 9, 2003

Hallelujah Amen I did go to the gospel music festival. The huge choir did a bouncing processional to the front of the church, then belted out 'Walking Up The King's Highway' while clapping thunderously. I attended with a silly friend of mine who kept making me laugh, but I was glad I'd taken him because there were a few moments of feeling overwhelmed for me -- I welled up, and squirmed... Maybe remembering my brother, who used to love this stuff, maybe just melancholy over the realization that I've gone so long without any real love in my life. Not a great realization. Usually I try to banish that thought because it is so depressing. But there was this little family sitting in front of us, and they had a little boy who looked about five or six, who was very happy to sit on his dad's lap and lay his head on his shoulder, and at one point, he also reached out for his mom's hand, and pulled it over to his face and kissed it. It was just so sweet. I never even get a hug... sometimes for months at a time. I guess I'm ill from that, too. I guess this made me feel sorry for myself, which makes me sick. My friend sang along and got me to sing too. When I was a kid in junior high I used to sing in the big choir at school, and we sang some gospel, and rocked and clapped. I forgot how much I loved all of that. Maybe I'll have to go join a choir again. It was somewhat of a challenging evening for me. After the emotions of the concert, we went to a real Mexican party. We were the only gringos there. He speaks spanish so he fit in, they love him because he's real funny. But I just sat there and didn't know anybody. And couldn't eat their food because I knew it would kill me, now that I've been eating so clean -- I'm sure they thought I was a rude snob. But I didn't want to risk making myself sick by eating a lot of rice and spaghetti and hot spicy stuff. He left me alone with strangers to go smoke a cigarette and I couldn't wait for him to come back so we could leave. It was a kid's birthday party, but all the community was there, with a DJ playing what I guess is the equivalent of country music for Mexicans, and disco balls and lights. All the men wore white cowboy hats and the women had exotic makeup and lots of babies. I guess I spend too much time alone. Not just another day. 7:29:56 PM    comment []

Mister Sharpy (Sprightly! To the tune of 'Mr. Sandman') Mr. Sharpy, Bring me a cartoon! I need a good idea real soon Please make my pencil sing out and croon! Mr. Sharpy, Bring me a cartoooooon! This is Mr. Sharpy, my battery powered pencil sharpener. He's been with me for about 25 years, now. When he runs out of juice, it's always a mad scramble to find four new AA batteries. And just as the inspiration hit for this morning's Larry Kudlow comic, Mr. Sharpy died on me. I found two batteries, and then went on a scavenger hunt around the house looking for more. The tool drawer upstairs in the office? No. Junk drawer? No (checked both of them). The box of tangled up extension cords and steel wool and sandpaper down in the basement? No. Sigh. At that point, I had to dig up Mr. Nostril, a good old-fashioned no-batteries-needed, runs on straight gal-power sharpener, a gift to me from my dear nephew, who obviously has a sense of humor and understands that his auntie does, too. But Mr. Nostril, faithful backup that he is, just doesn't do us the same as Mr. Sharpy. After a little bit of frustration, we remembered to look in the butter compartment of the fridge. Of course! That's where all sharpies keep their emergency battery cache! Back to work. 9:39:02 AM    comment []

Larry Kudlow and Other Liars From today's NYT: An Iceberg of Irate Investors http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/business/yourmoney/09MERR.html This story today in the NYT reinforced a lot of my resentments about the money I lost in mutual funds between 2000 and 2002. I watched my investments dwindle and was told repeatedly that it would be "stupid" to pull my money out, and that "the market would come back." I don't think I've ever been called stupid so many times in my life, actually. Especially by my Edward Jones conwoman I mean 'financial advisor'. I could not ignore my feelings of extreme discomfort any more and cashed in those funds last July. Predictably, I got called stupid again by her, in the process! I would have lost much more had I left the money in there. I don't really feel very stupid, now. I would have felt truly stupid, had I continued to heed her "expert" advice. Here's a quote from a lady who lost a lot more than I did in the Merrill Lynch tech investments that are the subject of this article "I know about 40 people in this circumstance, and there's more to come," she said. "We're all so embarrassed because we were so stupid to let this happen. Every one of us are back to work; some of us are making $6 an hour because the economy's not good around here. One guy has to work till he's 67 now because he lost everything." And here's an example of the shameless positioning these agencies do to try to slough off the blame for gambling and scheming to take advantage of the cash they were entrusted with Mark Herr, a Merrill spokesman, said: "It would be a mistake to assume that because the number of claims has gone up, that industrywide the amount of wrongdoing has gone up. What plainly is at work here is a prolonged bear market. And you also see a number of investors who were heretofore not experienced in the market and are experiencing their first downturn and casting about for a cause." Of course, their line is that it was the investors' fault for being so naive, and that the bear market we are experiencing apparently has nothing to do with their own cheating games! This bear market is a result of mass fraud that was committed against naive investors. But people have wised up. The firms have shown no attitude of apology, surrender, or will to make good, police themselves, etc. As we have seen, government actions to institute anti-fraud protections have been half-measures. America now regards the markets as untrustworthy. Fool me once, etc. The powers who control these financial institutions are crying like babies. "WAAA! Come back! Things will get better! We need to pick your pockets to survive!" And when no more suckers open their wallets, their talk turns bitter and abusive: "Dummies shoulda known they'd lose money in a market like that." I watch CNBC and I see how it is used by the power elite to spread propaganda and try to put a sunny spin on investing. The most egregious liar I mean spokesperson they have is Larry Kudlow, a smarmy charmer and shameless shill for the Bush administration. (I noticed he was the only TV personality to get a private interview with phantom Veep Cheney. Apparently Kudlow has close ties to the Republican power elite and was a member of Reagan's administration.) He has a sleazy way of mixing faux patriotism with spin about how great things are going to be eventually, folks. He'll tell you where (they want you) to put your money. Trust me, trust me. Reminds me of that snake in The Jungle Book. Here's a link to his most recent column, in which he tries to combine multiple fallacious arguments about how the markets' performances are linked to the stalled out war effort. Does anyone think he has financial interests in going to war? Does anyone think he doesn't? And note the way these people use the "liberal media" to beam their message out to America... Is there any counter-message being broadcast to the country by the liberal media juggernaut? http://www.townhall.com/columnists/larrykudlow/welcome.shtml Thank goodness that the little guys have wised up. It is a message to the financial bastards I mean giants to clean up their act. Right now, the markets are being jerked around by cynical professional investors and by war worries, granted, but surely not the kind of war worries you and I have. These people are worried that we will not go to war. This is not a bear market prolonged by naive investors. It is a market being punished by them. I take you back to the lady's quote, above: "Every one of us are back to work; some of us are making $6 an hour because the economy's not good around here. One guy has to work till he's 67 now because he lost everything." If the little guys have wised up, they haven't won. Corporate America's revenge is to knock higher paid workers out of the game so that they can be put to work as slaves for WalMart. America can't win until we refuse to accept or participate in any of their schemes, including hardball global capitalism. Perhaps we should return to barter and trade. Build solar heated rammed earth houses with off grid power systems. Grow your own -- be healthy and eat beans and organic vegetables -- you won't need stinking health insurance. Don't pay taxes. 9:35:41 AM    comment []