Take me now Lord…It is done.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!"

I am an eternal optimist. I may not be pollyannish with rose-colored glasses on, only thinking good things will happen; but I have always thought I will somehow prevail…somehow. Whether it be through my own hard work, God’s providence, or just plain dumb luck (my personal way of saying: God allow’s, God will’s, God is against).

When I was playing sports, I remember winning two games in one season with goal-line stands. In another one, my team came from behind by two-touchdowns in the last 2 minutes and 3 touchdowns in the last 3 minutes.

I remember being 8-0 (hadn’t had a close game all year) as a sophmore playing another 8-0 team. Their QB was future UCLA bruin Rick Bayshore. We led the entire game, I believe, until they scored on a trap play with 56 seconds left. Our biggest problem was that we had 70 yards to go and a 1st string QB who couldn’t throw. We only had 23 players (17 the first day) yet we played in a Big Boy” CIF league in Orange County, CA.

No problem for us. We just put in the 2nd string QB who hadn’t played one play outside of mopping up a couple of times. On third down, all receivers ran ‘up’ routes. I remember well watching Chris spiral arch perfectly hitting Mitch in stride with the defender a couple of steps behind. Even though several of my teams would win titles and an 18-game winning streak in college, it was the only time a team of mine would finish undefeated and untied.

And growing up in Southern California in the 60’s and 70’s made it worse. USC seemed to always be playing for the national championship in football and baseball while UCLA dominated college basketball for over a decade. Throw in all the minor sports the two schools were winning and a kid grows up thinking you and/or your team are just seeded into the semi-finals of every tournament.

This created in me (and my friends) an unbounded optimism.

Unfortunately, it is now exhausted after reading today’s headlines. Our country has completely lost its way:

“GA police shut down girl’s lemonade stand”
“Concord Could Fine Students For Cutting Class”
“Foreclosure Freeze Proposed”
“Fan Who Caught Jeter’s 3,000th Hit May Owe IRS Thousands”
“Front Yard Gardener Faces New Charges”
“Dem Congresswoman Brings Obama’s Race Into Debt Ceiling Fight”
“California companies fleeing the Golden State”
“Judge jails rape victim for contempt; victim put in cell next to attacker…”

And the latest:

“Grief counseling for Muggles mourning final ‘Harry Potter’ film”

What has happened to our once great country? A people of ‘can do’ and ‘damn the torpedos and full speed ahead’? Of “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”?

Forget my father’s generation (he was born in 1922) who grew up knowing nothing but The Great Depression; fighting WWII in early adulthood; and then ‘going to college’ and onto finding a job realizing a decade’s worth of men were all getting there at the same time.

No, these men…this entire generation, had it so much easier than the poor little darlings of today’s generation X, or Y, or whatever they are called. Today’s youths and young adults don’t have any NEW Harry Potter movies or books to entertain them. Pray tell, how will they cope tell? Thank God for grief counselors!

Actually, lookng above at what I just wrote, this generation must be ‘Z’, right?

Aptly named…’Z’ denoting the last letter of the alphabet, the last generation…

which is completely unprepared for continuing America’s freedom.

God help us during the coming storm.

Memo to Immelt:

Better watch out, Jeffrey...Michelle doesn't even get that look Wednesday night after midnight. Of course, she hasn't given as much booty, either.

Hey Champ, regards your negative comments towards your fellow businessmen: Can you please show a little benevolence?

I am sure this probably comes as a complete surprise to you but many business folk just aren’t as lucky as you. It’s as simple as that. They don’t have millions of dollars to donate to a presidential candidate. Neither do they force their employees to make contributions. This means that they have to actually make it in the marketplace and not expect to win rigged government contracts.

Just saying.

Ya Gotta Love Liberals/Progressives/Leftists

One of "the editors" of Bloomberg.

…and the way they argue.

Are they trained this way in their liberal arts colleges?

In reading a Bloomberg article a couple of days ago entitled “Closer Look Proves the Texas Path to Job Growth Isn’t Best: View“, I was simply awestruck by the complete lack of ability by a professional writer to lay out an intelligent, well thought out, argument. It is the literary equivalent of a SNL skit. It was so poorly written that no one put a name to it. The byline just reads “By the Editors”.

Seriously, this is the second and third paragraphs:

It’s easy to be charmed by Texas, but it would be a mistake to think the state might serve as a national model. Texas created almost 250,000 jobs in the past two years, nearly as many as the other 49 states combined. Texas leaders, including Republican Governor Rick Perry, credit that success to low taxes and a business-friendly regulatory approach.

Yes and no. Those factors played a role. To a sizable degree, however, the state’s booming payrolls are the result of hard-to-duplicate factors, such as a fast-growing population, and unusually low wages.

It’s that last sentence. Especially “hard-to-duplicate factors…”.

Let me answer “the editors”: No, it isn’t.

It isn’t hard to duplicate at all. When you have “low taxes and a business-friendly regulatory approach” you get a “fast-growing population, and unusually low wages”. People flock to “fast growing” states because businesses set up in “business-friendly regulatory” places. And “low wages” are acceptable because people don’t have to make as much since their state government isn’t stealing as much of their income.

Does anybody remember legendary basketball coach, Bobby Knight’s great one-liner to an obnoxious sportswriter?

“Most people learn how to write in the second grade and move on to greater things. What’s your excuse?”

These Bloomberg editors must have slept through their “Critical Thought” and “Rhetoric” classes. Seriously, do they need to be shown the mathematical proof for 1 + 1 = 2?

Isn’t it amazing?!?!?

Rumored portrait of the 45th President of the United States

President Obama has gotten religion!

Well, eh…no, I guess I can’t say that. I mean, after all, he was going to Jeremiah Wright’s ‘church’ for the 20+ years preceding his ascendency to the throne, er…Presidency. Let’s just call a…shovel a shovel, shall we? He is now a fiscal moderate.

In the patois of DC, this means he wants to lower the rate of increase of spending and raise taxes only a moderate amount. I didn’t think he was a drug addict anymore. We, as a country, are out of money and Barry wants to spend more money?!?!?!?

The man who needs a teleprompter to know when it is time to eat, is telling us that we need to “eat our peas”???

This is the greatest change of direction since Barry Sanders ran with the rock up in Motown. Not to mention the chutzpah it took to tell that big of a lie in front of over 300 million people.

What bugs me when I hear this isn’t the change of direction though. It is that the POTUS’s minions even think that it would be believed by a critical mass of the electorate.

Actually it bothers me that any American citizen would fall for such a transparently partisan act. One might say that it is a symptom of a far greater problem…that of a country that would freely elect the likes of Barack Obama.

Am I the Only One?

This is how many people feel.

No, I know that I am NOT the only one who knows that this ‘recession’ is not over. But I am wondering just how many other people understand. This morning I sent an email to a very close and dear friend who is awakening to the true carnage happening in the economy. The email linked three (3) diverse articles…one on employment, one on real estate, and one on banking. Maybe you saw them too:

Bank Fails Slow, Backlog Looms
Not just banks foreclose, the neighbors do too
US jobs creation stalls in June

This person is very bright. Not just book smart but quick, if you know what I mean. They couldn’t believe the data contained in them. They simply asked a question that many of us have been asking for some time now…”How can the politicians and bureaucrats have been saying for almost two years now that we are out of a recession and things are actually getting better?”

I didn’t have an answer.

So I am wondering…do you?

EL Bobbo is back!

Where's Bobbo?!?!?....I wish! Just FYI, if this WERE a real depiction, the brunette and I would be in each other's seat.

Sorry for the absence. Many people have inquired about the sudden cessation of activity. Any rumors that I was jailed while in a certain banana republic are completely false. As are the ones of me backpacking in Iran. However, those of me accompanying Seal Team Six, well, even though they are false, let’s just keep them going, shall we?

Actually, what happened is a combination of events. Work and life just got to be way too needy for my time. On top of that, I truly felt that I had said (written) enough about what was going on and about to happen. It seemed that I was just stuck in a “Groundhog Day” loop and figured everyone else was becoming as bored as I was.

Now we are back because I think things are about to get incredibly worse. We are at the trail’s end, or very close, and standing at a magnificent crevasse. My good friend, Dr. Housing Bubble, has just written a fantastic critique on why prices must plunge.

This is much longer than I presumed for my first post back. Guess that means I have fresh new issues to write about again. As always, I hope that you find this cyber space illuminating and useful.

Also, please let me know what you think.