Financial Crisis Ahead

Watched Glenn Beck tonight. Just and aside about Glenn here. I used to listen him on the radio up in Portland until they changed station formats. I had been wondering what happened to him for awhile until I heard that he had scored a show on CNN. Now that we have CNN I can actually watch him. And since there aren't any good talk radio stations here in town I'm sure at some point I'll start streaming regularly and get back in the habit of listening to him.

Anyway, my world collided tonight as I watched. My love of talk shows and my growing passion for personal financial health met in an unexpected way.

If you haven't become aware, the financial well-being of people in the U.S. has been endangered in recent years because of our own irresponsibility. As a society we have been spending more than we earn using credit and any other means that we can gin up. Now it's catching up with us.

The segment on Beck's program was sparked by the crazy day that Wall Street experienced. After discussing the Street with another corespondent he referenced a clip from Jim Cramer on CNBC calling the Fed on the carpet and using the word "Armageddon" referring to our economy. Watch it. Listen to it. It should shake you up.

He then brought on Peter Schiff who said:

"And it`s not just sub prime. You know, it`s not just people with bad credit that overpaid for houses and committed to mortgages that they couldn't afford.

And what we`re seeing right now around the world is the people who have been lending Americans money, whether they`re hedge funds here in the states, or overseas central banks, or foreign banks. They`re discovering now that Americans simply cannot afford to repay these loans.

And they`re also discovering that the collateral behind these loans, residential real estate, is not worth anywhere near the amount of money that they lent out."

Whoa! Here it comes. The big bite in the butt is here.

He went on to say:

SCHIFF: "Exactly. You know, that`s why it`s so disingenuous when you see people on Wall Street or the government say that the economy is sound, that what`s happening is not going to impact the economy. Of course, it`s going to impact the economy.

Our whole economy, our artificial bubble economy has been based on consumer spending. And they've been spending borrowed money, principally from abroad."

This is what my eyes have been opened to the last few years. As a society we've become hyper-consumers. The big-screen TV has become god. The boat has become god. The vacation to Maui has become god. And the biggest god of them all? The biggest god is the house. Everyone can afford to own a house, we've been told. You can't afford not to own a house, we've been told. It's all a load of BS and we've jumped in with both feet.

A growing passion of mine is to help people extricate themselves from this mess before it's too late. I want to see people take pride in what they have earned, not just what they have. I want to see people handle their money wisely and in cases of fellow Christians, handle their money in a way that honor's God above all other things.

The storm is coming.

theMK


Read Glenn Beck's show transcript here.

Lion vs. Buffalo vs. Croc

My dad forwarded this YouTube video to me. I'm sure you've all seen some sort of wildlife kill video before but I would wager you've never seen something like this.

This takes place in Kruger National Park in South Africa from what I gather.

theMK

The local Justice? System

Here's another intriguing story that I ran across in the Triplicate. It makes me wonder if the justice system has gone haywire everywhere when a drunk who kills two people and orphans two more gets what amounts to a pass.

Read the original report on the incident here.

TheMK

The Loons are coming!

Having just moved into town I'm still learning about the community here in Crescent City. I've been mildly surprised to find that the local paper here, the Triplicate, has quite and extensive online edition that covers most, if not all of the their paper-published stories. I have yet to compare the two thoroughly but from a very brief examination this is the impression I get.

So the other day I'm just surfing through some of the stories that have been reported on recently and I ran across one that made me flashback to Portland for a moment until I recovered my bearings.

There was a story written on 28 July entitled "Locals protest Police brutality." This obviously caught my eye coming from Portland where more often than not it seems that some group or other is protesting or complaining about the work that the PPD does there. Having come within a hair's breadth of attempting to become one of the fine (this word taken with a grain of salt) officers of the PPD, I definitely have a pro-Law Enforcement (LE) stance. So long story short this story jumped out at me as I wasn't expecting to find the same sentiment shared in this small community in Northern CA that is demonstrated in the exceedingly liberal city of Portland.

Beginning to read through the article it seemed that it was the same ole hand-wringing and tear-streaming protest that puts a victimizing facade on the perpetrator until I got a couple of paragraphs into the article. Here I found a most interesting factoid. First of all the perp's mother organized the protest which isn't entirely unexpected. It seems that most families today think that their kin can do no wrong and it is everyone else's fault that they (insert various and sundry crime here).

So again, not entirely surprising until I got to the next paragraph: "I hope to educate people about this situation," said Beck, who heads the Del Norte Community Watchdogs, a group dedicated to monitoring law enforcement practices to prevent the use of excessive force. "The cops were wrong. They used brutal force."

That blew me away! The perp's mom is the head of the local watchdog group! Can anyone spell I-R-O-N-Y for me? Imagine this if you will; a mother who has a low opinion of LE, heads the local chapter of a group of people who make excuses for and generally try to justify the sins of the scum of the earth, and try to cause overall consternation to those who have sworn to protect and serve. Can you imagine a mother such as this raising a son who would run from police, endanger children, and assault arresting officers over a loud muffler? Hmm.....

Needless to say I was slightly disheartened to hear that such Loons have managed to migrate from Portland to here. Oh no! I hope they didn't follow me!

TheMK

The original story covering this incident can be found here.
Both stories are written by Nichola Grube and published by the Daily Triplicate.

Life, it is a'changin' -- The Final Chapter

Well, we headed on home with the thought and expectation that our lives were about to change. We just had no clue how much they were about to change.

We arrived home on Sunday and went back to life as usual on Monday morning. Tuesday B was called in to discuss a situation at the hospital with her nurse manager. Thursday we found out that she was being terminated. I hesitate to say anything more in detail about the situation because as of now we are still in process of a grievance filed on our behalf. The Oregon Nurses Association has come alongside us and helped us through this process and I want to extend props to them and the representative that has walked us through this whole thing. The long and short of it is that B made a mistake, which she has readily admitted, that did not endanger her patients or anyone else. She has been cooperative throughout the entire ordeal except in those instances where her good name and reputation have been smeared unnecessarily. What it came down to on the management's side was a political and staffing decision. Instead of correcting the mistakes of a recently graduated nurse who had only been working for 6 months and showed great professional promise, they chose to take the coward's way out and place their own management mistakes on the back of someone who made themselves an easy target, namely my wife.

Yes, yes. There is a little venom still present on my part. The whole situation is hard to swallow and we're still awaiting the outcome of the whole thing.

Suffice it to say that the week taken as a whole, from Saturday to Saturday, was a little surreal. We felt like a pair of dice that had been shaken up quite vigorously and thrown out on the hard, slate and felt-topped table. Thanks to God first and my wonderful wife second that we ended up 7's. Just as a glimpse of what I mean: I came home on Thursday (knowing already that B had been terminated) and found her on the couch re-vamping her resume and talking about job opportunities in Crescent City (CC). That's just the type of woman she is.

So our plans changed in the matter of a week from living in Portland long term to moving to Grants Pass to take care of Gpa to moving to CC and starting a whole new life there.

Things were still slightly up in the air because we (the family) had yet to see what Gpa wanted to do. He went on a road trip with my folks up through Oregon to Portland and then over to Boise, ID where my aunt and uncle live. During this time there were a lot of conversations about what Gpa wanted to do, where he wanted to live, what he saw his life being from this point forward. In the end he wanted to stay in CC, his home. He's comfortable here, his friends are here, and he thinks CC is the best place on earth, Eden, as it were. "The weather's not too hot and not too cold."

So the decision was made final a few weeks later. To the greater extent I guess. There was the obstacle of jobs. For myself, I was already planning on pursuing my financial services career full-time. This allows me to go anywhere and take my business with me. As challenging as it is and will be I believe that somehow this fits into The Plan if there is one and if not, then it is truly a blessing from God that He's given for me to use as a tool to accomplish His purposes and to allow our lives to glorify Him.

The kicker was B's job. She started the process of job applications and interviews along with getting her CA nursing license. All of those things came together in their time and she ended up with a great job as a nurse in the OB department here at Sutter Coast Hospital. Since having continuous health insurance coverage was a concern of ours B moved down (sort of) at the beginning of June and began work in CC. I remained in Portland and continued to work my job at Classic Sash & Door until the last day of June. B would come up during her seven days off between her shifts and we would pack the house and get things wrapped up in Portland and our apartment there.

Slowly over the months of April, May, & June things came together. We found a place to live in CC. B's job came together and was working out wonderfully. Loose ends were being tied up in Portland. Gpa was getting on OK.

Finally the week arrived. I took the first week of July off and finished packing and getting ready to move. Saturday the 7th rolled around and the truck was packed, the apartment cleaned, the Passport loaded onto the car trailer, and I pulled onto the road at 11:30 AM, roughly 4 hours later than I wanted to leave. But it all worked out. I made good time and arrived about 6 1/2 hours later, greeted by quite a few good folks from the local church to help unload. B was unfortunately working that weekend so she was unable to help with the move itself. That's OK though, I'll cut my sugar-momma some slack :-).

So that's it. Here we are in Crescent City, CA living life and trying to figure it out the best we can. The pieces have all changed but they are finally in place. We just have to figure out how they all fit together. Life, it is a'changin. Still.

the MK