I feel it in my bones. A recession is coming. I don’t think it will hit till after the election next November, but I could be wrong. My gut tells me I’m wrong, anyway. Maybe its just me that its going to hit. My work isn’t in very good shape right now.

On the other hand, I used my credit card the other day, for a small purchase. I told the woman I hated using it, because I had too much credit card debt right now, and that I thought the economy was headed south. She said “Tell me about it. Things are getting worse.” This was from a stranger.

So yeah, its time to do a hardcore hunker down and try to get some debt load paid off, I think.

Well, I’ve been grocery shopping. Thats it.

Right now, I should be doing any of a variety of things. What I am doing is sitting in my living room while three birds play around me. I’m leaned back in a comfy chair, feet propped up, reading a good book, and dozing off a lot. The dozing off doesn’t last that long – some bird invariably takes that as a sign that they should climb up on me, to see what I’m doing. But its pleasant while it lasts.

I’ll be upgrading to the new Mac OS in a couple of weeks. But I’m quite anxiously reading the reports to see how it performs on a G4 laptop.

Oh, not in the social sense, but in the economic sense. He’s deeply offended by the price of gasoline. He’s particularly offended by the habit of buying and selling barrels of oil before they have been pumped. I maintain his none of our business. He maintains it is because of how it increases the cost of gasoline. He considers gas an essential.

My own take, is that gas companies can charge 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, a thousand bucks a gallon if they want. Its their product. What they choose to charge for it is none of my business. I guess that makes me a vulgar libertarian. Dad wants to preserve the status quo. I don’t. There are so many things I can to reduce my dependence on gas. I can buy a bike, and ride it to work. I could buy a scooter. As gas prices increase, Mass Transit becomes more feasible. Its more inviting to cook at home (since restaurant meal prices will go up). People can always move closer to their jobs.

None of these things will people like. However, that isn’t relevant. Its all based on respect for other people’s property.

Mind, gas prices are painful as hell, right now. The pinch is getting stronger.

Wow, I’m so out of touch with family. One of my youngest cousins – she’s 16 or 17, just had a baby! I have a ton of respect for this cousin. (Christin) She came to our grandmothers funeral in her full goth regalia. That demands respect. She’s a tiny little girl too. My mom and sister went to a baby thing for her today (her kid is still in the hospital. She’s a premie, and weighs less than 4 pounds). The father is still involved, and he’s a big guy.

This is both cool, and somewhat sad.

I remember a story I read when I was a child – around 10-12 years old, I think. It sounds like a cheesy story now, but part of it has stuck with me. A man makes a deal with the devil. Somehow he gets a watch that can freeze a moment in time, forever.

Over the years, I’ve often wondered, what moment I would freeze. I do believe I have it. I would choose a nice, cool evening, laying in bed with a good book. My dogs are comfortably curled up next to me, and I can hear the sounds of contented birds drifting off to sleep from the living room.

Yeah, I would freeze that feeling for all eternity.

I’ve noticed something over time, in the workplace.

Young, attractive women get persecuted (to a degree) by older women – especially by older attractive women who are in middle age. And, its two faced – things will be all cheery, happy and rosy when everyone is all working together in the cubes, But when the younger woman is absent…. watch out. I’ve seen this several, several times. Even to the extent, today, of seeing the older (but still middle aged) woman fire the younger one, on what are trumped up charges.

The more experience I have with people, the less I like them, overall. And, the less difference I notice between people and animals. Neither sex comes off well, overall. But anyone who seriously accepts the idea that there is little to no difference in the sexes, has never actually observed people.

Ah, the joys of sitting back and looking at a nice clean house, secure in the knowledge that it will be clean for about…. oh, 24-48 hours. Maybe.

Ugh, not a good Saturday. I started the day by helping dad clear out the spring, and get it ready for use. With this drought in North Ga reaching hundred year drought status, we might have to go off city water for a while, and back to using the spring. While my house is 200 feet from his, we have interconnected water pipes (though they can be separated, and normally are). That didn’t take that long. He has the experience, and did most of the work. I was just the grunt.

Then I did a shopping trip. I went and read a bit at Barnes and Noble, bought Dog food, 2 more pair of fat ass jeans, and other assorted odds and ends. Nothing interesting.

Now I’m typing this up with two dogs curled up beside me.

In any event, I didn’t accuse Malkin of hypocrisy. I accused her of stupidity. People do make choices and choices do have consequences, but, as Malkin might have learned by her own experiences — but, apparently, did not — sometimes the alternatives are unpalatable.

Now, in Malkin’s case, she could choose “a very high-deductible plan” without losing her home. But what if she couldn’t do that. Should she still bear the “consequences”? Should taxpayers?

(Obsidian Wings again – a good, ultra liberal blog. They think things through over there, but start from some truly bizarre initial premises)

As much as it pains me to agree with Malkin, in this case, she’s right. Many, many people are approaching this from the “healthcare is a right” view, which is, quite frankly, wrong. No individual should ever be forced to offer his services and/or skills to another unless he chooses to do so. Thats what universal health care means – that one group of people (doctors) are being (overstated a bit for emphasis) enslaved to serve the “greater good”. An individual is responsible for their own destiny.

Choices have consequences. It doesn’t matter that the alternatives are unpalatable.

The government has no business providing health care for any private citizen, unless the government is directly responsible for said person (i.e, soldiers, prisoners). A private citizen should cultivate their own support network. An incident like the Frosts? Family provides support first. Anything like that happened to one of my siblings, or parents, and to a lesser extent, aunts, uncles, cousins, then I have a house, land, etc that can be sold to help. Family overwhelmed? Your church provides support. Church overwhelmed? Friends. All overwhelmed? Well, you are shit out of luck.

Freedom first.

By posts like this, where someone is attacking the “right” for “attacking” a kid. And, in this particular case, for discovering just how out of touch a huge, huge number of folks are from reality.

According to Hilzoy, being in a family that makes 45k, sends their kids to private schools and lives in a house that is 3000 square feet is being “poor”, and being a member of the “working class”. You deserve government assistance (S-Chip) to pay your health bills. /Boggle I look at my salary, and my home… wow, I’m poor!

I mean, that mostly says it all. Thats how out of touch a big chunk of “liberals” are. There is no concept of personal responsibility. She claims that not stating that they only pay 500 dollars a year or so for the tuition isn’t reporting the facts. It doesn’t occur to her that they could put that 500 dollars toward the bills they owe. Even if they owed say 500,000 (a number I pulled out of nowhere), then they could owe 500 dollars less. They live in a 3000 square foot home. A family of 6. In 3000 square feet. Yep. Thats poor. Who cares about their mortgage? Its not relevant.

She contends that the government should bail the frost family out for the bad choices that the family has made. Or, at the least, that the four kids should not be “punished” for the bad choices of their parents. In her world, personal responsibility doesn’t exist.

Now, I love reading Hilzoy. She’s typically thoughtful, and she is logical. Her world, however, is based on so many false assumptions that its amazing we live in the same country. She is a bee – solidly devoted to the hive, and hive mind, and finds the idea of individuality abhorrent.

1) There is no right to health care. If you can’t pay for health care, you shouldn’t get it. To say that a right to health care exists, is tantamount to enslaving doctors. After all, someone has to provide this “right”. If an individual doctor, or anyone, decides to provide free access to their skills, then more power to them. Thats a noble thing to do, well worth applauding. Its very, very wrong to say that they HAVE to do that though. Or that they HAVE to provide access to their skills at some predetermined rate of compensation.

2) Just because something is happening which is not desirable – like a lot of people, kids or otherwise, dieing due to a lack of health care, that doesn’t mean that its the governments job to prevent the undesirable act. The government, especially the federal government, has a very limited role.

3) Individuals are responsible for their own actions. If you make a choice to follow a life path where you don’t have insurance, or some way of accessing health care, then you should not get it. I’ve made a choice to live my life in such a fashion that I’ll never have a private jet. Should I get one given to me anyway? No.

I’ll edit on this a bit later, and add in some more links.

Hows is this for odd? This morning, I was on a Ferry in Missouri, crossing over into Kentucky. There was one other car on the boat, and an older woman was its driver. When me and Dad were chatting with her, guess where she was headed? To visit her grandchildren in Woodstock, Ga. Thats is within 25 miles of where I live. Its a small country after all.

Lets see, as a brief highlight, I saw barges go through a lock, got flashed by a young teen, walked over the Mississippi, took a ferry across the Illinois river, and a ferry across the Mississippi river. I saw two different covered bridges (hmm, so I walked across three bridges total). I visited a flooded mine, saw a flock of several hundred white pelicans, and viewed a reconstruction of a Mastodon skeleton.

On the downside, I also saw two cockatiels in a cage far too small for them, and an Amazon parrot with a beak that needed attention that it wasn’t getting. Not to mention a zillion dead raccoons on the road.

Just a short post from the road, somewhere in South Missouri. Me and Dad have been on a quick trip through the state. Its been an enjoyable trip.

The most amusing thing to me, by far, was being flashed by some mid teens girl. She was jailbait, and in a very slinky dress in Clarksville Missouri – population 500 or so. She just had sat down on concrete stairs, probably to wait on some on. Me and Dad were headed out, it appears to she needed to adjust the dress… she saw us looking, and just hiked the dress, spread legged, wearing no panties…. clear view. She gave a very mischievous grin, and smoothed down her dress.

We’ve went up and down the great river road. Its been enjoyable. Tomorrow we will be home.