On a gentle note - and court jesters: the serious side

This column is of serious tone, and is in recognition of all those caught in storms. I survive my own storms by energizing through humor, "a gift of the Gods" when we can embrace it. Today I will examine a piece of the world stage. Bear with me?

The news on every level seems to be 'bad to worse'. Weather is wreaking havoc on people everywhere, jobs are disappearing in massive numbers, folks are cracking under the strain the same as the trees under the burden of ice.

If I look at the trees - again I see the human condition reflected in it. The economy is being hit with an ice-storm, but it's man-made (and I will also suggest unnecessary) with global impact. Comparing these two is an exercise in extending momentarily beyond one's own situation. The ice starts as rain, builds up, both gradually and rapidly, depending on where you are; economically, if you manage to avoid the worst of it, you feel lucky. If you're in the thick of it, it's a paralyzing task of survival and struggle.

The trees, or people with jobs and homes and families, get bent to the ground, branches begin breaking, and collapse under the weight; the people are being bent, smashed, and broken economically. 'Power lines', or the energy flow that sustains the economy, are ripped out in one area and affect everything 'further down the line'.

Transportation, or economic transaction, is severely crippled, and there isn't much that can be done "until the ice melts". Repair crews are struggling to patch things, and is that the highway department and electrical companies, or the infusion of 'bail-outs' in a feeble attempt to pretend we have the monetary system under control? As fast as the repairs are being made, more outages are occuring "until the storms pass".

We can more easily understand a storm created by nature than we can a storm created by man. After the ice storm passes, power will be restored to communities and homes, but the landscape has changed permanently in a short period of time. Shattered stumps, damaged homes, the climbing tree gone - there's a loss of what we used to know, and too often didn't notice or appreciate much before the storm. We can rebuild, and trees will regrow - it will take time.

But how do we fix people? How do we undo the hurting, create a place for all people to work and live within our society, and stop the economic ice storm raging around the globe?

Many folks are isolated by Nature's storm, struggling to survive as best they can in their own dwelling, focused on their own necessities - not able to assist even neighbors much. Usually 'we want the power back on in our neighborhood first', though we're loathe to admit it. The economic storm has also forced many into isolated struggles.

Lay-offs, pink slips, foreclosures, tent cities; it's hard for a single individual to care 'why' this storm is occurring when they're in the thick of it. Our main priority, for each of us, is our own neck. This is the same isolation and survival of the natural ice-storm; we can't help rebuild others' houses when our own is breaking. What is a community composed of?

Economically, we're falling individually and collectively. As we go down, we take others with us, the same as trees on power lines and homes. This storm, however, is relentless, and all the 'repairs' that have been offered don't address the cause of it. We will continue suffering then, individually and collectively as it ripples and clobbers through our society, claiming more victims that support the very core of the storm that is breaking us apart. That's the irony - it's man-made and collectively, we could change it, but instead we're individually at its mercy.

And it has no mercy.

What IS it then? What is breaking? How'd it get this way? Why haven't we been able to see it? Once again, we've had limited vision; we believed what we were taught about our economic system, we've accepted the beliefs as ours, and we're loathe to change our thinking if it will disrupt our individual expectations. "We want our power on first," and as long as there's a trickle coming down the line, it's disturbing to figure out this 'very thing' is sucking the life out of us. We can give lip-service to all the misery on the human stage and how to fix it, but we won't easily examine it up-close and personal in our lives; it makes us nervous and we're quick to deny there's a connection.

It's breaking all around us, and of the two storms, the consequences of the economic one is much more fierce, deadly, and destructive. We don't see the source of it, and therefore we cannot correct it. This is true of most of our politicians, communities, neighbors, and in our own homes. We can't fix it until we see it. That is pure logic.

On the upside, as soon as we can collectively see it, the change will occur swiftly and a burst of laughter at our own deception will burst apart this storm. The Emperor is parading around naked, the people are being taxed beyond means to provide 'more cloth', and no one dares say "he's naked". The cloth-seller laughs at both the gullibility of the people and the Emperor himself as he makes another deposit to his private account.

The Emperor is the American government, "We the People" support it, and the cloth-seller is the Federal Reserve generating 'nothing' by our consent while draining our economy of its worth and assets. As soon as we sold the creation of money to private banking, we began going in debt to an entity outside 'our system'. We're not taught this; we're taught the "Federal Reserve" is American and necessary. It's not.

Constitutionally, our government is supposed to issue its own currency, and as such, 'could not be in debt to itself'. But we can be in debt to outside entity, and we are, because we have allowed it. Every dollar in your pocket says "Federal Reserve Note" - it's not federal, there is no reserve (beyond being backed by our government), and 'note' is banker's terms for 'loan'.

Ergo, every dollar issued is controlled by this outside entity as a loan with interest, and they're the only ones with the right to create it. Ergo, we're spiraling in debt with a compounding nature that can never be resolved from within the very system that allows it to exist. Ergo, the economic storm rages.

What happens when we dare collectively call the Emperor naked? The Emperor has a choice of two: deny it and enforce continuing taxation, thereby sacrificing its own people, or recognize the truth of it and get back to the business of making 'its own cloth' for society. The unique feature of America is the government is supposed to work for and answer to the People, not the reverse. If this is to survive 'the naked truth', then it must implement the proper changes upon recognizing the deception of the last century.

I have two questions: When? And will We the People unite in common cause, or fall further down the spiraling collapse, drowning each other in a panic for self-survival?

We'd give of ourselves to assist others through nature's ice storm, dare we unite to address the economic storm? Everyone's on their own to answer that one, I'm just speaking from the heart for all those that are suffering. We are capable of so much more, and yet the weight presses down on all of us.

It takes the court jester to gently poke at the insanities of the court, and in doing so, truths are revealed - often to our own embarrassment. There's either a celebration coming or devastation, and I hesitate to contemplate the latter one.

http://economictree.blogspot.com/2008/11/column-86-playing-poker-federal-reserve.html

My true age revealed...

I was sitting in thought, trying to justify a reason for 'calling it a day' despite an assignment due, when I realized I was eating a Tootsie-pop while watching UFO hunters with Ghost-hunters as the alternative channel. (History and Sci-Fi channels, respectively.) There's a general concensus amongst folks that I've never left my first childhood, so I can't be entering my second. I was suddenly flummoxed by wondering how old I was, and I had no good answer.

For the jumpy-type people out there, about the meanest thing you can do to them (after telling horror stories of the economy) is watch a scary movie late at night - The Exorcist has seen its day, but you get the drift. Sneak someone under the bed, and once they settle in the dark... start shaking it. Some have even lifted it a bit. Like I said, this is about the meanest thing you can do to someone. Expect repercussions if you do this, and once again remember I said not to try anything in these blogs (accept the next thing).

Reading Glasses: 1) I have them 2) I realized my eyes are fine, what's causing it is the world shrinking sporadically in a warped fashion. 3) I haven't figured out a way to unwarp the world.

But I did learn a very handy method to deal with "don't have glasses" when I need to read a piece of text - menus, price tags, etc. I curl up my index finger, making a very tiny 'spot' hole with it. It's the strangest thing, but you can 'adjust' this scope to bring things into focus that you can't see clearly otherwise! So I was told I looked a bit strange doing this in public - as if that is going to concern me (not an iota, truth of it). Being able to read something without having to fetch 'cheaters' with, or asking perfect strangers "...can you read this for me?" which seems a case of illiteracy and then I have to add an explanation for my request --- they're both annoying. I generally always have my finger with me. :)

I told you that was a 'handy' tip.

I also suggest if manufacturers have to use print so damned small we need a magnifying glass - what's that about? A pill bottle for seniors has directions on it in a size a sharp-shooter couldn't read, and to really make them question their abilities, the directions are no longer clear-cut: "Take 2 every 4 hours." That we can deal with, but instead there's this itty-bitty print across the whole bottle that drops in helpful things like "don't take if you're pregnant" (okay, most seniors qualify) or if your uncle had nosebleeds or if you may have problems with dizziness (do they mean regular stuff like the merry-go-round, or the fuzzy feeling of having run into yourself recently?) but otherwise if you're over age 3 (okay, got that) you may take One. But if you're over the age of twelve, you may take Two. But only take two once, then take One four hours later (unless you're in school, because if you have an aspirin with, you could be expelled for drugs) and if your ears start ringing (is that the usual hum-type ringing, or is it more like the after-effects of a huge crash ringing?) contact your doctor (which will be after clinic hours by the second dose, so good luck on that). You may take two twice, four hours apart, but no more than five in a day, unless otherwise specified by your doctor (which one - your general, your heart, or the one that asked you to read the eye chart when you had a metal sliver in it? -- okay, the last one didn't seem too bright, so check with one of the others). Now, I've been standing in the aisle reading this bottle repeatedly for 45 minutes, and I still don't know if I dare take it, or how many, and my head is pounding worse than ever, so I decide to risk it when I look at the price and realize -- for $10, my head isn't hurting that bad anyway, and there's a good chance it's a lack of caffeine so I go get a chocolate bar and wash it down with coffee.

WHICH IS WHY... I saw on the web that coffee may help prevent dementia in seniors. Trying to read the pill bottles would eventually cause anyone to be a bit unhinged, and those that just go off seeking a hot cup are bound to thrive better. They proved it.

Any questions?