What a Wacky World

A billion dollar company gets bailed out by Joe sixpack but the CEO walks with millions while Joe can't make the rent. What is wrong with this picture. These CEOs should all be indicted!

I just heard the head of Lehman, when asked if the loans that were made for more than the value of a property and then repackaged was a bit like stealing if the buyer of that reapckaged security wasn't informed. Huh? HELL YES!!! it was stealing at the least, fraudulent for sure, and the fact that the Lehman exec said he didn't realize that was happening is lying under oath in front of congress and he should go immediately to jail without the possibility of parole.

There were national ads advertisng for 125% mortages - how could he not know! Yet the exec got millions for playing dumb. How did he ever get to be a CEO if he were truly that stupid and how can he sleep at night blatantly lying like that?

I recently read a wonderful book by William S. Coperthwaite called "A Handmade Life". It was fantastic and spoke about a simple way of living with respect for the land and one another. In one sense it made me want to homestead in rural Maine.

I have a problem though. I love art and photography and architecture and women's shoes from Paris and style and beauty and grace - and all of this, dear reader, in the most natural sense. I have no tolerance for silcone in the body or chemicals on one's hair. There is such grace in a woman getting older with gray and yet still oozing with her natural beauty. Growing older like this is a way of letting God's grace shine through.

But this problem of mine keeps me in a more urban setting. Stealing away to the occassional tropical place, going for a sail, or a quiet retreat is a good thing but I don't think I can live fully in this setting. I am unfortunately stuck with one foot in each place. And I appreciate and respect both for what they are.

Back to the current day wolves that parade around as Masters of the Universe...where did we go wrong? Was it after WWII when war still carried on with so little respect for life? Was it after the war when it became fashionable to own a home in the suburbs with poor quality and no architectural value just so we could say we owned a piece of the American dream and the developers learned to line their pockets? Or was it in the 60's when we all learned of the truly scary possibility of nuclear war but kept stock piling these deadly weapons anyway? Perhaps it was the 70's when we learned nothing from the first oil shortage about renewable energy or sustainability. The 80's came along and taught us all that "Greed is Good" and we all fought for our piece with little regard for who got hurt in the process. Disrespect for people reached new heights in the 90's when our President goes on national TV and says, "I did not have sex with that woman!", which was wrong in so many ways but this guy is still so popular today - we wouldn't put up with this behavior from our own spouse or children yet he still is shown on TV as such a great leader - WTF&*#$!!!

We had a glimmer of hope at the end of '01 and it took a tragic event to bring us all back together, but that only lasted mere seconds in the span of time. We are now more divided than ever. We are a country of right and left, have and have not, and our choice for the future is between twins sons of different mothers. It's laughable - but not really.

When will someone really have the strength to stand up and tell it like it is? An internet piece goes around putting Bill Cosby up for President and we all laugh but secretly wish some of his agenda was real. Today we are all being treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and living on bullshit.

The congressional hearings are themselves a joke! How can the congress take a hard line when most if not all do the same things - maybe with one or two less zeros at the end of the number but the same nonetheless. The only difference really is they haven't yet had the opportunity the others have.

It is such a wacky world that it would be easy to want to escape or check out for good but I'm not going to do that. No, I have two beautiful daughters that I hope will have the chance to see the beauty and majesty I have, plus I love Paris shoes....