Staggering to the library and back...

I had so many books to take back I could barely walk, and I hoped to have less when I returned, but I found so many I could not resist I staggered home with another giant load. It's a good time to check a lot out as we get to keep them 10 weeks because they are overhauling the computer system. I started reading a giant book called Searching for Bill Clinton by John Hopkins University psychologist, John Gartner. I knew it would be filled with information I did not know about Bill Clinton, and that is proving to be true. For example, I found out that he started reading when he was three years old! And was reading the newspaper by the time he was six. He reminds me a lot of Nelishia's grand daughter Katie who is proving to be so phenomonally gifted when it comes to her studies.
Bill, it was said by those around him, was usually always reading three books at a time. He along with Teddy Roosevelt were two of the readingest presidents of all time. Because their minds were such treasure troves of information they were also big talkers with knowledge about every subject that anybody brought up.
Gartner did research on the mystery that surrounds the identity of Bill's father. His mother claimed he was her husband's who was in the service, but Bill was not premature it was said but came 8 months after he returned from the service. And many said that Bill far more resembled a doctor that his mother interacted with as a nurse anthesiologist. Blythe, her husband, was killed in a car accident before Bill was ever born, but this researcher found out that when the doctor took his wife and family to the seashore, Bill was usually invited to go with them for the whole two weeks every summer, so Dr. Wright, if he was his father, managed to be close to him in ways.
He also talked to one of the doctor's sons who told him that his father was a phenomonal reader! While the intellects in his purported father's family appeared to be only average. This lends credence that Bill had inherited his brilliance from this man. A photo of his oldest son is placed along side Bill's around the same age, and they do look quite a bit alike, but I thought the phenomonal interest in reading was probably the biggest clue. His mother and her family did not have anything close to this level of intellect.
I was eager to find books on all the problems that are besetting us, including the economy. Every day more companies are down sizing, so the numbers who are being laid off are pretty frightening. I think we are all going to have to do a lot of helping in the years to come so that these people laid off will not suffer too much. I do not think we have begun to see the squeeze that will occur when the impact of all this downsizing will be most felt.
I am sure Obama is very nervous about what he will be able to do as president to address this big frightening happening.
I heard an analyst say tonight that we had become a consumer spending society and that China is now the saver and producing one that we once were. And now we are the ones in serious trouble. I think our presidents have quite insanely encouraged spending and buying because they feared to deal with just what has finally happened with all that spending. Up until just a few months ago Bush was oblivious to what was happening in the housing market with people who could not afford it buying new houses. He thought it was a good thing for all Americans to get in their own homes, not realizing that trying to have this American dream could lead to massive foreclosures. Houses have never been cheaper in Arizona which has now resulted in the sale of houses here rising again. People are buying these cheap houses as an investment. But a lot of money has been lost initially in the housing market, and housing starts have practically fallen to zero resulting in layoffs and bankruptcies in the building trades.
My father's thrifty ways kept me from ever having a credit card and buying on credit. He would not buy anything on credit, even a car. I was convinced that I needed to live within my small means even though others around me were buying and buying and did not think filing bankruptcy a bad thing at all. When you buy with the idea you will file bankruptcy I tend to think that is another way to steal. I have seen it happen too many times not to think these people had larceny in their hearts.
I have seen people on low incomes like mine wreck their lives with gambling, borrowing every single month to the max on their government checks from the bank with ruinous interest rates charged. Pierre, my last companion, had gotten to this point with his gambling and spending. Creditors were calling him all day long on his unpaid credit cards. I knew that he and his ex wife had planned to max out two or three credit cards and declare bankruptcy. I don't know if she declared bankruptcy, but he never got around to it before he died. I feel that his financially disastrous habits drove him to his death as much as his smoking and drinking did. He was on the verge of being taken to court by one company. I told him, when he found out he had terminal cancer, well, I guess dying is preferable to you than going to court. He still only had a green card so he was always afraid of being deported back to Canada. I thought he and his cousins were a bunch of thieves who took advantage of our system not to pay their bills and declare bankruptcy after making money a lot of money in construction and gambling and spending it away. They took pride in their building skills, but not in paying their bills!
I immediately tried to rein him in, saying that his attitude was draining the very life's blood out of him. Which is why I am so grateful to find such a frugal man in Doc. He is a different knd of drunk. He was raised by Lutherans who always paid their bills. I don't know what he did back in St. Louis but here he never spends a dime without squeezing it twice. In fact, he reminds me of my father, only he is not quite that unpleasantly stingy. I keep looking for him to go wild, but so far he has not done it. He has not made others pay with his excesses by spending irresponsibly.

I cannot stop blogging about politics until election!

Folks, you will have to bear with me as the election heats up toward the end. I must blog about politics, inspite of the fact that my creative partner Doc withdrew from the race. I am afraid he means from the race of life. The photo of him reminds me of one you might put on a memorial service program. This photo is going to make me cry when he is gone.
But enough of that. Here is my political blog I posted in my other blog on the Arizona Republic blog site.

AZ Republic appears to second guess support of McCain-Palin ticket

The editorial page columnists this morning bemoaned the campaign of McCain and Palin as sunk to a new low in a display of conservative power. Such a pessimistic view of McCain's political strategy seems premature. Wait until the election is over I say. I think the main thrust of people who go to the polls toward the end will tell us what this election has been all about more than anything. The early voters are generally going to be eager for change. Those who vote last are going to be pondering the complexities right up until they mark that ballot.

Let us rememember in 1973 the country was forced to take a giant swing to the left by the actions of the Supreme Court, and conservatives have been trying to figure out how to swing it back ever since. In this swing to the left the relatively new working and voting women were shanghaiid by leftist thinkers. I have just been reading a book about Emma Goldman, a Jewish woman, who came from Russia to become the first famous woman anarchist. Reading her history of abuse by male figures, including her father and husband as well as authority figures in power, I can understand why she was tempted by this philosophy. I remember being bossed around by so many male figures of authority that anarchist was a sweet word to me, too, at one time. Until the anarchists showed they meant business with violence, as Emma did with a bomb, and then I backed off. I thought, no, I can't be an anarchist, and in 1973 the violence of the legalized abortion solution turned me off then, too. I thought no, I can't be pro choice.

McCain is contending with a liberal press that is finding extreme violence in everything he or his running mate say or do about war while they are overlooking the violence in their own philosophies, namely pro choice. I am against war as too violent in most cases. I concede that the attack on the twin towers was so savage that retaliation was human, but there was still too much of a warrior in our President and quite possibly in McCain to contain our war actions to what we could afford without breaking the country.

So over zealous warriors have contributed to the day of financial reckoning we are experiencing, but wait a minute. I have been uneasy for years with many presidents who exhorted the public to get out there and spend so our economy would be 'healthy.' Now suddenly we are faced with the realization that we have embraced the philosophy of spending until it got us into serious trouble. I have certainly done my part in trying to buy enough stuff to stave off a crash. My closet is full of clothes. I purchased at least 20 pairs of shoes, where I used to get by with 2 or 3 pairs. Every senior I know has filled up their apartments with geegaws from the dollar stores, stuff from the thrift stores, and even new stuff from the retail stores they could ill afford. I have tried to keep Mervyns from growing broke even though it is still is. Family members borrowed money on their equity in their houses until they could no longer work hard enough to pay the mortgage. They were getting old and lost their jobs and now they might lose the house. They are only a mortgage payment away from foreclosure. They claim they were told to do this as well to keep the economy 'heatlhy.'

So now hundreds are broke or severely hurting and they tend to blame whoever is in office. We are fretting about Palin's new wardrobe costing $150,000 and an old lady at the bus stop told me the other day that Cindy McCain paid $350,000 dollars for one dress! I saw this infamous dress in the paper. We did not care if she was a multi-millionairess she was surely not helping her husband convince people he is frugal minded enough to win this election. Conservative talk show hosts like Limbaugh were ranting and raving about Michelle Obama buying lobster and Iranian caviar when the country is hurting so badly, and that story turned out to be false. I am wondering what she did order from room service, if anything, and just how much it cost. We surely don't expect her to quit eating, do we? Or go to a bread and water diet.

So we have been told by past presidents to do a lot of foolish things that now look as though they were a sure recipe for disaster. In fact, I hear this is a tsunami of a financial crash. I still say we must be patient until the votes are all in and counted, and then we can more accurately analyze just what happened. Let us not paint such a dark picture before we have reason. McCain and Palin might have a respectable showing of support after all, one we can build on.