For Freedom!

After Youtube took it down, the truth is back up! Click the post title to view the scandal of the century...

Dodged a Bullet

I was fortunate to watch some of the debates on CSPAN this morning. Aside from a few dissenting dems who thought the bill didn't do enough for the little guy, it was overwhelmingly a dem bill. Most dems supported it, most of GOP opposed it. The thing that fired me up was the mantra:

a) Bush caused this
b) We don't want to do this, but...
c) This is bipartisan, but the GOP really messed this up because of their "failed free market ideology"
d) 700 bln is a lot of money but this ain't over, we are going to seek more bailouts especially ones that would make it impossible to foreclose on a house
e) Wall St. is the worst

The republicans who supported it were more in the camp of, it will cost more to do this than to not, so we might as well.

I was surprised to hear a couple of things from dissenting GOP.

a) Bank examiners are going beyond their authority and requiring banks to mark-to-market loans where payments are current. The law says they don't have to be marked down if the pmts are current. This results in a decline in assets on the bank's balance sheet and forces the bank to hold more capital reserves, drying up funds to loan due to the money multiplier affect.

b) The savings and loan crisis was worse in terms of bank failures and we only spent 1.8 bln to get out of that mess which saved over 100 bln in assets.

GOP lawmakers want to take a more practical approach to resolving the issue rather than just dumping 700 bln in taxpayer dollars.

Furthermore, the first 250 bln that would be the first tranche used in the reverse auction would probably yield the worst returns for tax payers as institutions would have dumped the loans that illegals have taken out that have run back to Mexico and are completely worthless (i.e. CA inland empire) We would have taken a huge bath on the first 250 bln. The second tranche was 100 bln to be used at will by the president. Please! Talk about free money for earmarks. This whole thing was a total sham.

We dodged a huge bullet today.

Tahoe

We had such a great weekend at Lake Tahoe, where we stayed in a cabin with our friends! We took a boat out on the lake, and while I chose not to freeze my hinee off in the water, others chose to ski. London's job was to hold up the orange flag, which she took pretty seriously.











































We celebrated Jen's 29th birthday with a super-duper chocolate cake with homemade hot fudge. Unfortunately, she was the first victim of the "Tahoe bug" (24 hr. stomach flu) and couldn't enjoy it!

We took a gondola ride up the mountain at North Star ski resort and hiked around. It was fairly treacherous as we dodged several mountain bikers and swarms of bees. London got her first bee sting and took it like a banker.


We also really enjoyed King's Beach, which had super shallow water and a sandbar that was perfect for the kids.















London enjoyed flirting with the men-folk, especially Adam, as seen in this photo above.

Eden is our water
baby and had a blast splashing around. As you can see, she fills our her swimsuit better than her sister (see above photo, with London's sagging bum).

In the evenings we enjoyed playing games, laughing, and catching up. The highlight of the final night was the group talent show, which showcased two scenes from Waiting for Guffman, a puppet show of a love scene between Edward and Bella from Twilight, mental math tricks, mind-reading, song translating, broadway-style singing, and a jovial game of "Stump the Sebras." A talented group indeed!

Escaping the heat at Pacifica

Enough Politics...

We had a short visit from Grandma Afton...too short. She lives in Atlanta and we don't see her enough! The girls adore her.

Cuteness!

This is London at Fairyland, which could also be called the poor man's Disneyland. I remember going there when I was a kid. It is full of nursery rhyme and fairy tale character sets. London's favorite was the the Three Pigs' Houses--she has been really into this story all summer since Grandpa John showed her the cartoon on his iPod. She wanted to eat her snack in the house made of bricks (see below). At each set you can turn your magic key to listen to a little song/story. This was the first time London has demonstrated her strong will and determination. She did not want any help turning that key, and if she didn't get it in right, she would get frustrated, go sit on the steps and cry, then brush it off and try again. It was quite amusing to watch! She had such a good time she cried when we left and for days after kept saying, "That was fun at Dandyland!"


Pretending she's a bird.

More cuteness!


The Jacobson gals

Tim at the restaurant we went to for our anniversary, called Nick's Cove in Tomales Bay. It was a beautiful drive up the coast and it felt like we really went somewhere for our anniversary, even though it was only for the evening! It was totally one of those restaurants typical of Nor Cal, where the food is organic and comes from sustainable farms. You know, the kind. It was really yummy! Tim got the best clam chowder I've ever tasted.

Here is London playing with her friends at the park.

Tim and Eden at the Sausalito Taco shop, one of our favorites.


Can't go to Sausalito and not have a Lappert's ice cream! At least we weren't totally tourist-y. We didn't rent a bike and ride it across the GG bridge!

More cuteness!

Strip Him of His Lights and What Have You Got?

["Why Obama Can't Close the Sale"
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122039919493892941.
html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries)]

A fantastic Op Ed piece from the WSJ today gave a nicely researched albeit condensed summary of Senator Obama's platform. For all of you out there who have begged and pleaded with the populace to really look at the issues, here is a chance to do the same.

For those who wish to retort, please do so by defending his platform and not merely saying, "Well McCain's policy is worse because...". I want to know why you think these ideas of his are so great and why you think they are going to lift mankind.

Please keep in mind a little Econ 101 and remember that more taxes create deadwieght in the economy - meaning it keeps supply and demand lower than it normally would be and leaves us with both higher prices and not enough to go around. Please also keep in mind that if the Dems are correct in their assertion the economy is in the tank, then why in heaven's name are they also pushing for higher taxes? A total disconnect.

A rising tide lifts all boats and the other way around.

One thing that is completely lost on foes of free markets is they do not wish to acknowledge that the freer the market, the more compassionate the system in that it provides more for less - meaning the needed resources reach more people at a cheaper price. More regulation and higher taxes do the opposite. So why would a party that touts its compassion for the downtrodden embrace such a flawed economic position?

Please, think about that. Truly! Think about that! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Barack Defends Experience - Kind of...

Last night on Anderson Cooper, Barak defended his experience (see this link http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/01/obama-defends-natural-disaster-experience/)

A couple of problems here:

1) He is left comparing his experience to that of Sara Palin - THE VICE PRESIDENT CANDIDATE!!! How funny is that? The debate has turned to answering the question of whether the top of the Dem ticket has more experience than the number two on the GOP ticket. Never a good thing. That could come back to bite you Senator.

2) He compares his running a campaign and "handling the systems" as trumping her executive experience as a Governor. Say what? Come again? Do you really think that argument holds water? "I ran a great campaign, so I deserve to run the USA. Her experience as Governor is not really relevant when you compare it to the two campaigns I have run."

Lose/Lose for Senator Obama...He really should ask for my advice first.