Well, Sarah and John have pounced all over Joe's prediction that if Obama is elected he will be tested 'as John Kennedy' was tested in the 1960s.  My, my, what a surprise.  I do think Biden is right that the new President, which ever is elected in two weeks time, will be tested.  Unfortunately for the McCain/Palin camp I definitely do not want 'Quick Draw McGraw' McCain and the Beauty Queen Palin responding to those crises.  I like the prospect of measured, thoughtful, adult responses.  We have had much too much of the shoot-from-the-hip, knee-jerk kind of response that all too often results in our President shooting us in the foot, or the ass, or the pocketbook.

I have just been over to Tom Englehardt's tomdispatch blog reading his 'report card' on the Bush Administration's Global War On Terror.  Talk about friendly fire, I think we have all been 'fragged.'  

I can also say that I am not very surprised or impressed by McCain's and Palin's recent attempts to define Obama's economic policies as 'socialist.'  For years we have suffered through repeated tax cuts for the wealthy and tax increases for the less than wealthy but no one talked about socialism.  Somehow, it seems, taxing those who have little to give to those who have much isn't socialism.  Certainly McCain, who by his own admission voted for Bush policies '90% of the time,' is making, by implication, that claim.  Now he claims that he doesn't want to tax anyone.  Really??  How, then, will he pay for his programs which are largely left overs from the current administration?  His recent singing from the Populist hymnal is very unconvincing.  Too little, way too late.  And, I suspect, way too insincere.

PureLandMountain has an interesting graph and it does, as he says, explain a lot.  No wonder tuition is so high at the nations' colleges and universities.  Although the ultimate source for the graph is PHD Comics, the graph may not be far fro reality.  Many years ago, when I attended a University that I won't name, the University President held the equivalent of a town hall meeting to defuse the rising tide of dissatisfaction students were expressing over the large amount of money the University was spending on a perennially losing football team.  He repeatedly told us that the money spent on football paid for itself.  I asked him how he could claim that when the University spent $1.5M on the team and only got back, by the University's own figures, $500k.  That seemed to me a deficit of $1M.  All he could say in reply was he was sorry I 'felt' that way.  I guess my advanced degrees in science didn't provide me with the expertise required to do such elevated math.  

I am continuing today (Thursday) what I started yesterday.  Sometimes I just don't have the time to finish off what I start.

Archcrone at The Crone Speaks has a blog post that hits the nail on the head and says much of what I have been thinking about our economy for a very long time.  We have a very peculiar brand of capitalism now.  One which exists only because more and more people used credit to maintain a middle class or higher level of consumption.  We are beginning to learn the answer to the question I have frequently asked: what happens to a consumer based economy when the consumer can no longer consume in the heroic style to which we have become accustomed?  Another thought: why is it not considered fraud to make deceptive offers of credit cards to economic fragile and possibly desperate people?

This is amusing from The Australian.  Australia has been in the grip of a prolonged drought and now the authors of a government study wants people to stop using the word drought because it 'depresses' farmers.  Instead they want to encourage the use of 'dryness' instead.  Rather reminds me of the gyrations economists go through to avoid the word 'depression.'  How many kinds and levels of recession do we have to go through before someone decides to ignore the lipstick and call a pig a pig? Note: I find the linguistic contortions amusing NOT the drought.  I am glad to see that some are resisting the notion.  They are also debating the effectiveness of government programs to help drought ravaged farmers. 

Talking about code words and the creative use of language to hide rather than illuminate, take a look at Helen's latest entry at Margaret and Helen.  She is right on and we have had scads of trash talk ever since St. Ronald railed against the 'welfare queens.'  Now we have McCain ranting on behalf of the poor Joe the Plumbers while proposing programs that would leave Joe and his brothers and sisters in the dust while transferring more wealth up the economic ladder.  I don't care much for taxes either but, like Helen, there are amenities those taxes pay for which are necessary. I do like properly maintained roads.  I would like an education system that really educated.  I would love a health care system that worked for more than those who have, however tenuously, insurance or the money to buy whatever services the wanted.  I also think that a system that acts on the old Ebenezer Scrooge sentiment (If the poor are like to die without assistance, let them get on with it and reduce the surplus population) is a very unChristian, and immoral one.  If that is the essence of Capitalism I will take socialism any day.

Enough of my jaundiced rants for today.  See you all next time.

I found this article after I had posted my last bit, from the International Herald Tribune, which says 'voluntary simplicity' has reemerged.  Several other papers have also carried the article. Evidently a new generation is finding the truth behind the saying that 'what you own owns you.'  A couple of years ago I saw numerous sites on line dealing with this topic.  Maybe the time has come again.  Today I found this by way of Lattes and Life which got me to thinking about the following question: what do we really mean by 'frugal?'  Do we mean that we don't spend a lot of money?  Or do we question ourselves about what we spend our money on; whether we really need it, or if we get good value for our money?  When I worked in a party goods store I saw customers come in and grab lots of stuff with no idea of how much the items cost or how much they needed.  Often they came back trying to return the excess.  A little frugal thought would have saved them time and gas.  Some years ago I learned the hard way that Wal-Mart was not the place to buy fabric.  It did cost half what the cloth at a JoAnn's or the local quilt shop cost; but it was less than a quarter the quality.  Since I want the quilts I make to last, the frugal choice is not Wal-Mart.  Surely frugality isn't simply another money bottom line thing.

I have spent most of my adult life in the academic world (college/university) and over the last decade or so have become increasingly unhappy with it.  Twenty years ago I thought I would pursue a PhD in history and teach college or university classes.  I love research, writing and, at the time, teaching.  This article from Atlantic Monthly by way of Eric Alterman and his Altercation blog reflects so much of my experience and thinking on the subject of higher education.  Over the years I have had similar experiences with students who are either ill prepared for advanced study or have no interest beyond checking off another requirement in their march toward that so necessary degree.  At the same time I have looked at the listing of job ads and their requirements and wondered just what the degree really had to do with the job advertised.  I have seen relatives who are very well qualified by their work experience or who are exceptionally well certified in their fields forced to pursue degrees in order to keep or advance in their fields.  Those degrees did not help them do their work better.  It has merely drained their finances.  A college degree has become a part of the so-called American Dream along with the house in the suburbs, the spouse, the dog, the 2.1 (or however many) children.  We don't really question it and we should.  

The Caffeinated Librarian notes on one of her bullet points today (5/20, in case I don't get this posted today) that she is fed up with plastic bags.  I know how she feels because Mom and I have been talking for sometime about using the large stack of canvas bags I have acquired over the last three decades.  I started acquiring the bags when I was in Colorado and there was a big push along the front range to stop using paper and plastic bags.  My ex-husband and I used them for the very brief time we shopped at Aldis markets in Missouri because the Aldis charged for new bags.  He loved the low prices and I hated the quality.  In the end I did the shopping so I won and we got our groceries from other stores and I occasionally remembered to take in the canvas bags.  Here in our part of Indiana we get a lot of the Chicago news.  Evidently there is a move there to outlaw plastic bags.  It hasn't passed yet but the chances are good and often what goes in Chicago comes around to us.  We are becoming more environmentally conscious and will make the switch when we have to.  Why not sooner?  Well, we use the plastic grocery bags to line our small trash cans in the bathrooms and  we have three cats whose box MUST be sifted out every day.  We say our cats are full of s**t and what we get out of the box proves it.  Because we reuse the grocery bags we haven't had to buy new plastic trash bags which we think is a good thing overall.

I remember a similar situation to this one about twenty years ago.  It involved cuts in bus service. This time it is the airlines.  I saw numerous news stories on both the national and local news casts featuring small town residents without cars who depended on the bus service and were facing near total isolation.  Some could not even shop for groceries because the bus was their only means of transportation.  Just out of curiosity I wondered about what kind of bus service my town has now and found that it has none.  We cannot go to any of the surrounding towns or to major cities by ground transportation unless we have a car.  Surprisingly our small county airport lists flights to a wide variety of destinations.  We may be luckier than the towns mentioned in the article.