Thursday Roundup

I'm starting to get the feeling that things are leveling out economically and may be ready to turn around. It will probably be a slow turn around and things could still get worse, on the downward momentum, before things LOOK better. This has been the slowest month yet at work so I am surprised to have this optimism. It may just be wishful thinking. But if things do continue to get worse, it's gonna get ugly. In September my business dropped by more than 50%. It's now down more than 75% from Pre-crash levels. There's is not much room for further deterioration. Yet, I feel that some sort of recession-fatigue is taking place. Since much of the economy recovery will be based on psychological reasons as much as financial facts, this fatigue could be an indicator and instigator of a turnaround. *fingers crossed*

The Iraqi shoe thrower was sentenced to 3 years in prison.While a lot of people are protesting and criticizing the harsh punishment, I think it's just about right. As I wrote at the time, George Bush created a huge disaster in Iraq and I completely understand why he is even more hated there then he is here. However, you can't just assault a President of any country. Those shoes would have cause some significant damage if Bush hadn't ducked out of the way. There is no difference in my mind then if he had thrown a brick or a knife. Just because the single skill that Bush had was ducking, doesn't mean that it was a very wrong thing to do. Three years, maybe with time off for good behaviour, seems appropriate to me. Not too harsh but severe enough to illustrate that it was an unacceptable thing to do.

There have been a couple big shootings lately. In German a crazy guy shot up a school and in the USA, a gun nut went on a rampage and shot all the people he thought had wronged him. I have support the right to bear arms even as I roll my eyes at the NRA and the idiotic scare mongering they do to raise funds. I came across this commentary that sums up my thoughts perfectly. Please read.

With all this screaming on cable shows and talk radio, you would think that the American people are about to rebel against their new government. Shocker - they are not. The approval rating for congress, now dominated by Democrats, is up! It seems that the public knows something needs to be done and is willing to support those sticking their neck out to try something, while turning away from a party stuck parroting late 1970's rhetoric.

Just 25 days until the baseball season starts. I got my tickets for the new season. I had to switch to Friday night games rather than Sunday afternoon because of the new stadium reorganization, but that's cool. Getting up and ready to drink beer by 1 in the afternoon was often a hassle. Night games are real fun anyway and my seats are still good. Yesterday, I got an email offering me a chance to buy a 20 game package with seats "between the bases". I looked and they are great seats. I figured I might get them and then go a few times and sell them a few times. After calculating the cost for 2 tickets for 20 games the total price was $14,000!!!!!! I passed.
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