Buying Time

Reading Bush about the economy and the stimulus (tax rebate) package he pushed for, I get the impression it's not that much different than the weather at Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park (photo), one big snow job after another, and before you know it, you're so deep in snow you can't find your feet, let alone the ground far beneath your feet.

And the road (far right edge of photo) is buried under the recent snowfall Bush gave the press recently, which was, "Give things time." Time for what? Or is it really that George knows that if he can get into the fall with only a minor recession, and even if the Republicans take a hit in the election and lose the Presidential election and seats in Congress, he's a lame duck, and overcooked at that. He can simply skate into another winter saying, "Wow, this snow is sure beautiful."

Anyway, I don't know any better, and even far worse, than anyone about the future of our economy. I only see things from my corner and window in paradise, and only my annuity, it's all I have. I earned it working 32 years in the military and civil service and 7 years in odd jobs before the miitary and between the military and civil service in college and graduate school. And I'm working on a second career at my pace, slow but enjoyable and affordable.

That's about all I gleened from the newspapers. I read a lot of articles, but much of it already too much in the news or lost in the blur of world events. Is a story about events or people in a country anything more than just a snapshot of one place or person(s) for a moment in time? What does the rest of the world think of us from news in their newspapers about the US? Do they equate Bush with everyone else?

I doubt it, but it only reminds one to read the news with some mental salt.

In other news, the National Parks Conservation Association issued a report on National Parks for sale. It's worth the read to understand that $1.9 Billion to buy all the major land holdings within or adjacent to National Parks is cheap compared to the Iraq-Afghanistan wars. And the land isn't being bought on credit as the wars are. It's about a week of the Iraq war to buy all the land.

Think about that, all the money going down the drain into the national debt and our creditors, instead of helping Americans with jobs, health care, education, environmental safety, infrastructure, etc. But I've harped away on this issue. We'll wake up in a few years to realize the folly of the Iraq war from the onset with nothing but a destroyed country in an endless civil war and all the money gone, until the payments come due to China and other countries.

So it goes. As the snow fall, the snowpack increases, and eventually it melts. At least snow looks good.