Gone for a week

Today's post is going to be a bit a rambler. I am just going to dump out some thoughts about our world today.

Wow, I go on vacation for a week and the whole baby boomer world falls apart.

Yup, I left town and went on the road. Made a swing through the North East. It is really pretty up there at this time of year. And, one of the great things was that I stayed away from the news. (As best I could.)

Tuesday I was waiting in line in Quincy Market to buy a coffee and looked up at a TV and saw the Dow was around 9,500. I will say that I wasn't shocked. Our finance system is a giant house of cards. It is based on us borrowing more and more money from each other. At some point the system has to collapse. At that point it can be rebuilt from the ground up; wash, rinse, repeat.

That was my first full week vacation in over 15 years. Like most gen-xers I work. I work a lot. I don't do a lot of shopping and I don't do a lot of spending. I am not good for the economy.

I did make time last week to watch the debate. I can tell you we are screwed. Not because of any difference between the candidates but because of their similarities.

No matter what they are saying about Iraq, Obama and McCain have the same foreign policy. A policy that is costing us over $1 trillion a year. Neither one has said they are going to change that. If you take the military budget of every other country in the world and add them together, we spend more than that. Think about that for a minute. Neither one will change that.

Why do we have troops in Japan? Germany? Pick a country? Empires crumble from within. It takes a great amounts of money to maintain an Empire. Money that we do not have. At some point our allies / enemies will not want to lend us any more money.

Our current financial crisis is based on easy credit. Both candidates want to get those credit markets going again so that we can continue this current Ponzi scheme of debt.

Then there is the question, "Given the current financial crisis, what in your economic plan would you change?" Neither candidate has the stones to tell us either A. they don't know, or B. Name some stuff to change.

I believe, deep down, that we have it within us to pull together and work for a greater good. However, our leaders, do not have the balls to ask us to do it. After 9/11 we were told to go shopping. That statement from our leadership shows the moral bankruptcy of our age.

I will tell you all right now I am voting for Obama.

Something has gone very wrong with McCain. We should search his many houses (how many was it again) for pods. He is not the man that he once was. The quest for power has ruined him. He has taken on a win at any cost mentality.

Normally a VP candidate should not matter as much. But, given McCains age there is a chance that Palin could become president. To me, that would be a nightmare scenario. Palin encompasses too many traits that I cannot stand. She is like a female George W. Bush. I do not believe she is capable of understanding complicated issues. (And is it just me or is she just like Karen from Will and Grace?) That whole wink and, "You bet-cha" is right out of the world of sitcoms.

Of the two candidate I believe Obama may have the spark within him to ask us to make the sacrifices that are required to rebuild our country. I could be wrong, it's hard to tell because he too is pandering to his base. But, I think he will do better on the world stage. His tone is better.

That's it for today. (Oh, and if the markets bounce over the next few days, don't think that the crisis is over. We still have a very long way to go.)

That's it for today.

Now a return to your regularly scheduled boomer bashing.