Salute to the real writers

I was thinking earlier today about how hard it is to write and no I am not trying to pat myself on the back. You read about how some people who have doctorates, have written many books, some academic,along with some other topics, etc.. have a pretty good collection going for themselves. OR there are writers like James Clavell , people who can weave a huge story, plots and subplots, more characters than you can keep track of in one reading. and what sucks for right now, I first started thinking about all this earlier today and cannot recreate what I was thinking. It made sense to me then.

 Anyway I was thinking about how people can write and be prolific about it. I write this blog and am trying to write a book, I barely can do a few pages at a time, now I will give myself the indulgence of saying, I have a full time job, do volunteer work, have a family, but even then I have down time, time I could be writing. So it amazes me how people can spend full time writing, putting out papers and books, yes it maybe tied to their job, like being a professor. Or a full time author, but they are able to put together their work. And that is one of the areas I am impressed. You just don't write, it is the prep work, the rewrites etc to make it better that really knocks me out. Just writing a few pages scares me to what other work is involved. Anyway earlier today I was thinking about writing and a ton of thoughts came to mind, but I cannot remember them now... But I did want to put something down about my admiration for their work. Must all be type A people, I know I am definitely type "L".


Every now and then I am suppose to talk about Dallas, I reread my introduction, and forgotten about it. I first wrote it when I was pretty angry at the world, started this blog after a year of the recession etc.. and it still amazes me the people that created the whole thing face no consequences. Yes a few companies are paying a few billion in fines or something, but in the big picture this doesn't affect them the way it affected millions of people who lost jobs, houses, dignity, families uprooted some even split up because of the stress and anger.

My first book idea was I was going to do an expose on those people, but there again, following through became a daunting task, because it involved not only writing but research and research I had no idea how to start. I don't mind doing research, but I need direction and I couldn't create it for myself. I eventually kept the idea of doing a book and have a few ideas and have one started. Goes back to how difficult it is to write. I can write a few pages, but keeping the flow from one time to the next is difficult. Or I will write a couple of pages that is just more about the book than the story of the book, like writing paragraphs about a character, but does it fit into the story just written down? Yep that is where the re writes come into play. Wish me luck, because I would like to finish, but no where near. The story is good I think, who knows. Eventually I plan on rewriting the introduction, but how I want it to read I have no idea yet.

 And for Dallas, it is hot, I like hot, but sooner or later a person does want change. First full week into fall and it is still 90 something with humidity so you get that infamous "feels like" temperature. And for us it is close to a hundred. Again I like it hot so I don't mind being out in July or August even doing a bit of yardwork in the heat, but I am ready for fall. And we may get a taste of it this weekend.

And if you have read my blog before you know how I feel about our local sports teams and yes the Rangers are looking good outside of the recent series with the A's I hope this just helps them get ready for the intensity of the playoffs. I have been avoiding talking about them, but it is looking good. I didn't want to jinx them. Got my texting buddies back on line so we can chat back and forth about the games in the playoffs without having to leave the living room. Yep I am a bit of a home body, along with the TYPE L personality. We will save the Cowboys for later. Right now got to push the Rangers through the playoffs. We have another chance to win it all. And lets hope I haven't jinxed them yet.

 And finally the State Fair of Texas begins this weekend. It definitely has something for everyone, still just about the largest fair anywhere. So if you have nothing to do and have never been to Dallas come next week to see the fair, temps will be in the 80's so really nice to be out and about inside the madness and wonder of our State Fair. Will last for three weeks, but next week weather is looking pretty good overall. Just some quick hits on this hot and humid night here in Big D. And still want to talk about my Social Security ideas and other tie ins, just can't make it exciting in my brain anymore. I think the idea is a nice framework though for what we can do as a country to be productive and innovative again. Stay cool. And I really don't know if there is a type L, that is suppose to be a joke (lazy)

Oops coming back to add this thought, as to writing I will add a comment on occasion to all the Yahoo and CNN blogs that go on, all the posts to different stories. Mostly I read the political stories, but other topics as well. I haven't been talking politics much because of all the hate and stupidity being posted. I don't know if a small minority is just sitting around posting all day under different names, or what, but if the hatred being spewed on the blogs and story posts is any indication of the mood of our country I am a bit fearful for our future. I like to be optimistic and proactive with solutions, but I found myself posting a bit of an answer to the hatred etc. Basically it is all stupid, but much of it attacks Obama. Waste of time, but the amount is incredible. Worrisome. And as a conservative how can you get anyone to buy into conservative solutions when these hate mongers seem to control the conservative dialogue and not just on posts. I am not voting Obama or Mitt, but I don't feel the hatred towards either that you read on a daily basis so it has toned me down on my own political blogging. Hope to see something better in the debates, but as you know, I don't think either is right for our times. Till next time.

well known thought of the day

If politicians never open their mouth they would never regret what they say

Uber rich economics, a strange analogy, QE what

I started thinking about this analogy awhile back. To me it is a simplistic explanation of how bad our economy is being manipulated. I do think it brings the point home. I was reading a tad bit about the Fed stimulus and I didn't have that in mind when I was thinking about this analogy, but some of it ties in and I will try to show that point after the analogy. It seems to me the uber rich pretty much have built their control over our economy for over a century. They use events to consolidate more and more of their wealth and prevent others from being able to create their own wealth. And if you have read my posts you know I am a big believer that spreading the wealth to many helps democracy thrive, conversely concentration of wealth is dangerous to democracy. Think about the board game Monopoly. Like every game you play for awhile and there is a winner and losers. At the end you either put up the game or start over ( for this analogy I am not talking about we have to start our economy over). Pretty straight forward, everybody loves the game, and normally it is just a game. Now imagine you decide you don't want to quit playing or at least the person winning doesn't want to quit playing. So you start adding features to the game. Usually the game ends because someone has most of the property and money. Normal economics says once that happens and for the game, pretty much there is nothing else to do. Once someone has all the money, you can't play anymore. If in real life someone was to have all the money then what would you do. Well in the game you now decide that you can keep going around the board and everytime you land on the leading person's property you just write down on a piece of paper how much more you owe that person. So basically you build unending debt. This person does keep it going by throwing the false bone that you still have a monopoly, you never know, we could keep playing and maybe I will land on your property enough times that you get back in the game, all the while you would have to avoid landing on his property so you don't build anymore debt. Even if there were four players, three all fighting with one monopoly more or less beating each other up, and continually landing on the person with most of the property. That person just keeps adding up the money coming in and the other three hoping they can become like him, but he gets bored. So he decides its okay now to have more than one hotel on each property ( if you know the game you know this is a major change). And since he already has most of the money he buys up more and more hotels to place on his properties. Now even more bored he says I want to create more rules (for his benefit) so he uses the paper money from what you and the other two players owe him to buy more hotels. All the while convincing you you still have a chance because you do have one monopoly. So you buy this,but now he decides he wants no consequences for his actions so he convinces you its okay to take out the chance and community chest card that charges fees for the number of houses and hotels a person owns. So now there is no risk to buying more, so he does over and over again till he is now playing monopoly, but having hundreds of thousands of dollars on paper that well is worthless because there is no way anyone could pay. The three other players keep trying to catch up with their one monopoly, but there is no way you can build wealth because any resources you get eventually go to the winning player because the deck is stacked against them by the new rules. Now think about the last recession. What was lost, people's savings, jobs, value in their house, etc, more of what they could build from has been taken away and the people who did it want to continue to change the rules for their benefit. The Monopoly analogy is simplistic, but think about it. It shouldn't take you long to figure out the game needs to be leveled again for it to be a benefit for everyone. And to tie in the QE 3 or whatever, now the banks have a guarantee of long term low interest rates. They can borrow money invest in oil, gold, volatile stocks, other commodities etc to make outsize profits with very little risk to them. They have hired the people that know how to play the game, whether the market goes up or down they have got it covered. They pay them bonuses to make them feel like they are super rich, but all the while controlling who has access or limiting to who can reap these benefits. And these bonds the Fed is buying are mortgage back securities, so mortgage investments now have lowered risk (again) supposedly. And this lowered interest rate money has no tie in to making people use it to benefit the whole economy. This is just one piece of a puzzle that has been going on for decades. If we want change we have to change the rules. Again I don't think we need to make everyone start over, but the rules have to be changed. And you start by holding the winners accountable to investing back into the game. If they do that you don't have to tax the heck out of them,their investments into real economic growth makes up for taxation, but if they don't help the economy then they need to be held accountable for their actions and what it truly costs society in increased poverty, decaying infrastructure, more prisons, (that is what they seem to think solves problems), moral decline and general loss of the concept of a free nation. Basically if they don't want to play then maybe they should pay.

Throwing stones in a glass house

Doing this from my phone so a bit of a struggle to type. Lately there has been some stories on the internet news about the struggles of.Muslim women. Many suffer death because of dishonor to their family or other punishments for some such alleged crimes. Pretty much a serious problem for women of that religion. And in the stories there are people posting comments. Many comments relate to the tragedy of it. The problem is many comments are full of vile and hatred. I am not a fan of the WA the Muslim religion is treating the women in,their lives. But who are we to criticize. Yes killing innocent is horrible and should be stopped. The abuse of these women should be stopped. Just how much better are we in the west though. Pornography runs rampant and we don't do that much about it. Young girls are all tatooed up like branded cattle. Just because we don't use religion as a pretext to enslaving women how much better are we? Again there is no excuse for Muslims to misuse their own religion to mistreat women. And just as much though we cannot criticize or condemn others till we get our act together and put a stop to the abuse of women by pornography and child pornography. Women abused in poverty or in ignorance. We have work to do ourselves before we blindly criticize others,even with merit. I don't like talking about social issues, or about religion much, way too inflaming of atopic. It is there is too much hatred in the news posts without us acknowledging our own lack of respect towards women. So instead of throwing stones maybe we should build ourselves a better house.

A bit of advice and a bit of a rant

Probably should have posted the advice before Labor Day weekend. Anyway when driving down the highway be aware of what the drivers around you are doing most especially when crossing new territory. You see caravans of people cruising along 15 or more miles per hour above posted speed and you decide to join them. Okay no problem there, but when about half the group slows down together you might slow down also. It always amazes me when people keep going and soon find themselves getting a ticket. Folks if you don't the terrain then time to do as the Romans. Slow down. When a few people slow down someone knows something unless they all exit. Stay with the crowd. And for gas prices....please wake up and smell the bile. We will continue to be manipulated by oil companies as long as there is no competition. Folks the free market means a free market. Honestly I wish I had a billion dollars to invest without having to worry about immediate returns or a brain where I could develop an alternative to gasoline. Gas prices will continue to push the high end of what they can get for as long as they can get since there is no competition for transportation fuel. I know everyone knows this, I just can't figure out how we can break this monopoly. New energy development is one of the better ways to break our economic impasse. Stay cool