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Seeing the Beauty in Nature Helps Define the Soul of Man

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Ever since the day when our first primitive Human ancestors stood up on two legs and surveyed the world which would one day belong to His descendants, Man has been struggling to control his environment.

Nature has ever been a source of conflict and danger.

Competition with other animals for food was the key to avoiding extinction.

To eat and not be eaten, has always been a primary rule for survival.

Becoming a skilled hunter was important.

Developing the skills to avoid becoming the prey was a good idea. Life is much easier if you live at the top of the food chain.

Humanity has learned to insulate itself from some of the ravages of nature.

Animal skins, and other types of clothing. helped Man to adapt to and survive more extremes of nature.

The Human Animal has always been inventive, utilizing the bounty of Nature to elevate Himself above the other competing species that inhabit his world .

Caves and trees as safe havens for shelter.

Bodies of water as boundry’s and barriers for protection.

Rivers as a means of transportation.

Sticks and rocks made effective weapons in the hands of an upright biped with a moveable thumb

As human brain capacity evolved, humanity became the dominant species on the Planet and was able to excert more and more control of His environment.

The evolution of man’s soul and the emergence of his consciousness saw Man begin to develop an awareness of himself as an individual entity, enabling him to relate to his peers as well as to the natural environment which was his home.

Having evolved from nature, Man must learn to live in harmony with his world.

Domination is a responsibility as well as a privilidge.

Posted in Candidate for President, Just An Observation, New Articles, Quality of Life, just life, the telling of the story | 5 Comments »

A parable, Fat Louie, the duck with gout, seeks fowl health care.

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Fat Louie was getting old.

He was a fat white duck, and he was suffering with the gout.

He had contracted the gout as a result of eating rich human foods thrown into the lake at Snapfinger Woods Estates, a complex east of Atlanta.

Snapfinger lake was man made, as an amenity for the residents of the condominium complex.

Louie had been top duck when he was younger.

His flock consisted of 12 adult ducks in the spring,usually expanding to 17 or 18 by fall.

His superior swimming ability ensured that Louie would be the first to reach the food.He loved to showoff his speed, and he really loved the morsels that his humans threw into the lake.

The gout is a painful form of arthritis that develops from excessive consumption of rich foods. In ducks this results in elevated levels of uric acid, which can crystallize and form painful deposits in a ducks webbed feet or ankles.

In Louie’s case the crystals settled in his right ankle causing pain and a difficulty in swimming and walking.

The gout is known as the rich ducks disease.

Ducks in the wild, subscribe to the adage,” survival of the fittest”. When Louie developed his painful affliction,the flock turned on their leader.He was chased away and forced out of the water.

Louie spent his days alone,on dry land, He became a clown,waddling around the Snapfinger Woods grounds. When he saw a potential food suplier he would go into his pathetic quacking act ,hobbling with great effort. The “awwws” invariable turned into more food for Louie.

As the seasons passed, Louie became fatter and fatter. He was very lonely .

One day he looked at his reflection in the water. ” Louie, your getting old,” he said to himself. ” I think its time to get my leg fixed.”

The Greater Atlanta Duck Association (GADA) had passed the Universal Fowl Health Reform Act of 09 (UFHRA ‘09) . According to GADA, every duck in the greater Atlanta area would recieve free premium government supplied health care .

” Health care on demand. I’m ready to get treatment for my gout. ” Fat Louie quacked. ” I’m getting old, and its time for me to get back into the water. Maybe I can even find an old Daisey to keep me warm in the winter.”

Fat Louie went to the GADA satellite office in Stone Mountain.

Two very pretty an very young Dasie’ s greeted him at the front door. “Hello Mr Louie,” they quacked. ” Please wait over there and we will add your name to the list.

Fat Louie walked through the door that they indicated.

It was a very large and very noisy room filled with several thousand assorted fowl.

The noise was deafening. There were birds of every species and every age from hatch lings to the very old.

There were wires and roosts filled with waiting patients and the ground was crowded with non flying birds .

The floor was covered with upward of a foot of poop, and the cacophony of hoots, caws,quacks and assorted bird calls was deafening.

Louie looked around for someone in charge.

The scene was chaotic, and finally Louie found a small group of white ducks off to the side,

He waddled towards them glad for some familiar ducks.” Hello everyone. My Name is Louie, Fat Louie. When do I get to see the doctor?”

The group of white ducks looked at him for a moment then all began to quack at once.

” Hold on, one at a time please, I can’t understand you all talking at the same time.”

An elderly gentleman with molting feathers and a pair of spectacles perched on his nose, stepped forward.” I’m Daniel Duck. and I have been here the longest, so I suppose I qualify as a spokesman.”

“How do I get to see the Doctors? How long will this take? I have things to do at home this evening”

Daniel looked at him and shook his head” I’ve been here waiting to see a doctor about my failing kidneys for almost two weeks.”

“Why so long?” asked Louie,” I thought UFHRA guaranteed us free medical care.”

“It does my friend, it does. The problem is that there are not enough doctors, and most of the good ones have gone away to other cities. Because of the shortages, the government has prioritised our access to medical care based upon our are, and the cost of treatment. ” He had a sad look in his eyes.

” You see, I’m old, and not worth very much to the greater good, so they keep putting me at the back of the line. Eventually I’ll get a turn, but the fird flu that has hit Atlanta is keeping the nurses and doctors busy with younger more cost effective patients

They figure I don’t have much time left anyway.”

“Universal free health care my aching right foot,” squawked Louie, and he waddled out of the room and headed towards home so that he could at least die in his own pond.

Posted in Candidate for President, Current Events, Just An Observation, New Articles, just life, parable | 1 Comment »

The business cycle is like the cycle of life

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

The business cycle is like the cycle of life.

It is born.

It learns how to walk.

It reaches maturity.

It blossoms .

It grows old .

Eventually it must die.

Business cycles tend to follow credit cycles.

When credit is available, people borrow and spend today for things that they might otherwise not purchase until tomorrow.

Your current automobile might be only 3 years old, and in decent condition for another 3 or 4 years, but easy credit tends to encourage the consumer to buy a new car before it is necessary.

On a macro scale, when credit flows, and people spend on future necessities today, business makes profits, hires new employees , spends more on technology, expands facilities and helps to generate growth.

When credit cycles contract, a new direction is created. Borrowing shrinks, spending contracts, savings go up and debt is reduced. Businesses contract, increase layoffs, and delay spending.

The last major credit shift experienced by the U S economy shifted to an expansion mode in the early 80’s. The Greenspan and Reaganomics agendas saw an expansion of available credit which grew virtually unchecked until 2006-2007.

We are currently in the early stages of a Credit Contraction Cycle(CCC)

This is not a temporary pause in an ongoing expansion. We have shifted into a new direction.

The duration of this type of cycle typically lasts for an extended number of years and results in bankruptcies, foreclosures and unemployment.

The Great Depression of the 1930’s is usually shown as the standard of CCC economics, but we experienced similar but lesser extreme contractions in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with Nixon’s taking us off the gold standard as a rapid slide into Stagflation.

This is not a “bad recession” as the experts claim, hoping to keep us calm while our economy unravels.

We are i n a Depression. It is just beginning, and it will feel more difficult because there is an entire generation of Americans who have never experienced bad times.

Savings have increased from 0% to just over 7% in slightly over 1 year, and demand is contracting because there is less money to spend.

The Administration is trying to add demand by spending money at a super record pace, but cask for clunkers and various stimulus spending sprees are just moving money from one place to another.

Demand is not being generated, that will only come when new wealth is created and wages and employment increases.

Unfortunately that will take years, a major shift to expending credit once again, and of course a great deal of contracting and suffering in the interim.

Posted in Candidate for President, Current Events, Financial News, just life | No Comments »

Those are not green shoots, they are just garden variety weeds

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

The green shoots that the Administration was trumpeting as the beginning of an economic renaissance, ended up succumbing to too many weeds, too much watering, and way too much fertilizer.

The government is displaying a stiff upper lip, and has enlisted the aid of Wall Street in an attempt to put a positive spin upon a deteriorating market.

Companies are exceeding lowered expectations, with shrinking numbers of employees, reducing overhead to make “less gross sales” look like more profits.

The stark reality is that the government Bureau of Labor Statistics is cooking the books on unemployment and the state of the economy.

If you count unemployment as is used to be calculated, the picture that they paint as 9.5% unemployment is vastly different and much more ominous.

The real number of unemployed Americans is close to 30 million people, or nearly 20% of the work force. When you compare this statistic to the unemployment figure of approximately 25% during the Great Depression which occurred 3 or 4 years after the 1929 market crash, you can see more rough times ahead.

The bleak statistics are ominous because we are just at the beginning of the spreading recession/depression.

The disparity between government statistics and reality are created by the following deceptive reporting methods.

#1. People who have used up their unemployment benefits and are no longer collecting, are not counted.

#2. The people who receive the extended emergency unemployment benefits granted by congress are not counted.

#3. They are taking small business job creation estimates and have projected them as actual jobs. In reality, the small businesses are getting taxed and squeezed out of business, or have been forced to contract, not expand .There is easily a large net loss not increase in small business hiring.

#4. People forced to take part time jobs to survive, are counted as employed by the government.

Any trip to shopping malls, Main Street America, and most commercial and industrial areas of any city will show dramatic and massive closing of small businesses.

AVAILABLE and FOR Rent signs are everywhere and the numbers are growing. This is causing the beginning of another real estate mortgage crisis. The commercial property default,

And the slide continues.

More on the Prime Adjustable Rate Mortgage(PARM) later.

Posted in Current Events, Financial News, New Articles, just life | 2 Comments »

Ragnor the Barbarian, Warrior Chief of the Michenga Nation,North America 9000BC

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The Michenga Nation, began as a defensive alliance formed between 5 related family tribes

Their honored ancestors had emigrated to the area, gradually ,over the previous 2000 years.They were a nomadic people,constantly on the move, following the migrating herds of mastodon,giant bison, camels, and wild horses.

They were periodically being pushed from behind by their sworn enemies, the savage Mongol nomads. First across the vast Steppes of Asia, traversing the Bering Straights, then spreading throughout the Americas, the Mongol lust for blood and slaves kept the two peoples in a constant state of war.

The Michenga were a proud peaceful people, slow to anger but skilled fighters when aroused.The Mongols forced them to hone their warrior skills.

The final retreat of the glaciers had left the far northern tundra of North America bereft of much vegetation and game.Starvation and death pushed the herds of herbivores and subsequently the predators south.

The increasing encroachment on their lands from the North by the barbaric tribes of slant eyed wild men known as Mogol, had resulted in the death of many good warriors, and the theft of several fertile women.

As individual tribes, the Michengas were too scattered and weak. In unity there was strength.

The North American topogrophy of 11 thousand years ago was vastly different. The area that is now the North American Great Lakes region was a large inland sea, created by the invasion and subsuqently the retreat of the glaciers during the previous ice age.

The valley of the Michenga lay between the Majestic Sea and the low mountain range to the east. There were dense, game rich forests to the east,encroaching on the foothills of. the mountains. The valley extended southward turning into rolling plains of fertile dark soil inhabited by herds of wild buffalo, giant elk, and wooly mamoth.

The northern terrain was largely rocky with very little topsoil and sparse vegitation. The future lush forrests of the far north were still engaged in a struggle for survival with a retreating frozen environment. .

Ragnor the Hunter was the Warrior Chief of the Eastern, Mountain Michenga Clan..

Posted in New Articles, The moral of the story, just life, the telling of the story | 1 Comment »

A Tongue in Cheek Explanation of Derivative Markets

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Hi Dear Friends and Readers ,

I think this is a very clever post that was sent to me by a friend.

I wish I could take credit for writing this, but enjoy the humorous explanation

At last, what we’ve all been waiting for, an understandable explanation of: ::::::::: Derivative Markets ::::::::::

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi’s drink now pay later marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit.

By providing her customers’ freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no

resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and BARFBONDS. These securities are then traded on security markets worldwide.

Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds, are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses who collect enormous fees on their sales, pay extravagant bonuses to their sales force, and who in turn purchase exotic sports cars and multimillion dollar condominiums.

One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due to his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar.

Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. BARFBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans.

The suppliers of Heidi’s bar, having granted her generous payment

extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds.

Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.

The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by so-called leaders from both political parties.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.

Posted in Current Events, Financial News, Just An Observation, New Articles, just life | No Comments »

The Recession spelled Depression Part II

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Why is a Fed policy of almost 0% interest rate, and a $13 trillion bailout package not going to work?

Answer:

Because we broke the game.

When the market crashed, and real estate continued to fall, the American consumer was faced with massive layoffs, and a dwindling net worth both in IRA’s 401K’s and value of their real estate and other tangible property.

Americans have begun to look at their new SUV every year, the $6000 vacations, and the garage and basements loaded with unwanted stuff , and have come to the realization that they have too many possessions , and less and less money to pay for them.

Consumers have stopped buying on credit, they are reducing debt at a record pace, and are saying no on new purchases.

The basic formula which has driven our economy for the better part of the last 60 years is grinding to a halt, and has begun to unravel at an increasingly rapid pace.

After WW II and well into the 50’s and 60’s, we were a nation conditioned to save.We increased our bank accounts on a regular basis, and the idea of credit cards and borrowing to purchase was approached with temerity.

We would spend our savings to raise our families, and educate our children, We were a lender nation.

In the 70’s Nixon took us off the gold standard. Instead of being backed by gold reserves, our currency was backed by the promise and faith of the government.

The recession in the 70’s , spurred on by OPEC, turned into the stagflation of the late 70’s. The government attempted to fight the recession with large spending, and massive(at that time) increases in the money supply.

The influx of newly printed cash into a stagnant economy resulted in massive inflation and interest rates in the upper teens and low 20’s

Reganomics and the increased intervention by the Fed under Volker and Greenspan turned us into a nation of borrowers and shoppers. .We became a debtor nation.

By the 90’s, we were spending more than we made, riding every economic bubble and market excess to new heights of deficit spending.

By the 00’s, we had stopped saving entirely, making shopping the national pastime .

Every recession has been cured with easy credit and the ever expanding money supply/

This never ending credit increase led to the creation of more and more insidious lending instruments, leveraging our homes as engines for credit, and making it easier and easier to purchase our homes without ability to pay for them.

Part III to come.

Posted in Current Events, Financial News, New Articles, Quality of Life, just life | No Comments »

Fat Louie, the Duck, Buys a New Home,a Parable about Risk and Responsibility

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Fat Louie was a fluffy white duck

He lived in an area east of Atlanta, known as Snapfinger Woods, which was comprised of Snapfinger Woods Estates, a converted rustic style apartment complex, and a man made pond known as Snapfinger Woods Lake.

Fat Louie had spent the first years of his life happily swimming and splashing in the pond. He was the biggest and fastest of the small flock of ducks, and soon became head duck .

The human residents of Snapfinger Woods took great joy in feeding Louie and his companions. They would throw bread, cake, and other foods into the lake, and watch with glee as the ducks raced to be the first to reach the food.

Being the biggest and fastest, Louie usually got most of the food. He would eat, and eat,and eat some more.

One morning, Louie woke up with a constant throbbing pain in his right foot. He had developed the gout as a result of all the rich human foods which he was consuming.

The other ducks quickly rejected Louie as being defective, and a danger to the rest of the flock. They chased him out of the water, forcing him to waddle around on dry land.

Louie became Fat Louie, and most days he could be found waddling around the apartment complex ,limping on his bad foot.

Feeling sorry for the “poor” duck, the human residents showered Louie with an array of rich human foods, which made the gout worse.

He was forced to sneak quick splashes in the water, hobbling in and out accompanied by a great deal of squawking and quacking as the rest of the birds rushed to eject him from the pond.

That Spring was unusually rainy, and the small pond gradually overflowed its banks, The water ran down a slight incline, soon filling a nearby gully, and forming a tiny secondary pond.

” It is time for me to get my own home” Fat Louie thought to himself as he surveyed the newly formed mini pond.” I have some duck credits saved up. I think I’ll go to the Greater Atlanta Duck Association (GADA) to apply for Duck ownership to the new pond,’Louie’s Little Lake’, as he had already secretly named it.

Drexel Duck, chief real estate liaison between GADA and the general duck population, was a small grey duck. His down was carefully groomed, and his crown was fluffed to give him the appearance of additional height.

He gave Louie a disinterested stare.” So you want to purchase a residence.. From your application, this is a new construction, Unoccupied?”

Louie quacked “yes”.

” I also see that you have a 10% downe payment” He continued. ” and you want to apply for a Fowl loan for the balance.”

Again Fat Louie nodded his agreement.

Drexel paused for a moment.” I will give you a government acceptance voucher. You will have to pay a small fee and a 10 % gratuity for my trouble,” he held out his wing waiting to recieve his “payment”.

Realizing the way that government worked, Fat Louie slipped him a fat envelope.

Drexel glanced inside, seemed satisfied, then continued.” Take this voucher and go to the Greater Atlanta Fowl Realty Authority(GAFRA) They have mortgage money available for disadvantaged low income fowl.

Fat Louie put down a deposit of 10% and was able to borrow the 90% at 6% interest on a 10 year mortgage.

Louie’s Little Lake belonged to Fat Louie. He quickly settled in, building a soft moss nest on the far end, near the wild grass which Fat Louie loved so much.

Fat Louie had been on human, public dole so long that he forgot how to feed himself.So, every morning he would hobble over to the apartment complex, hopeing to catch the big humans before work, and the smaller humans before school.

He would eat until he was ready to burst, then when all the humans were gone, he would return to his new home in the suburbs.

The following Spring into Summer, the rains stopped, and a drought soon developed. The heat of the summer sun caused many of the lakes and streams in the greater Atlanta area to dry up. Water levels fell , and Fat Louie’s new home gradually returned to its previous rocky dry gully.

Fat Louie went to GAFRA, asking for help. ” My home has dried up. I can’t live there any more. What should I do?”

Earl Grey, the loan officer in charge of GAFRA looked down his beak at Fat Louie.” What do you want me to do? Pay your mortgage .”

Earl Grey was a very large grey goose. He had stopped off in Atanta during a migration several years ago, and had found it much easier to stay and feed off the locals that it would be to continue the endless flying. Back and forth, north then south then north again.

” Haven’t you heard about our new leader?”Asked Earl Grey.” The ADDOP elected a grey goose as flock leader for the first time in history. The word is share the wealth. We are all brothers under the feathers.

“But my home is worth less than the money I owe. “Complaine Louie.”Why should I have to pay ?”

“Did we force you to purchase this property?Asked Earl Grey.

“Listen,” said Fat Louie. It is my right as a citizen of the common flock to get assistance from the American Democratic Duck Open Party .(ADDOP)

“Sorry, ” Replied Earl Grey, ” Due to the prolonged drought, we have allowed our brother birds, including Geese, Swans, and migratory flocks from across the border, to share our lakes and ponds. If you need assistance, get in line with the Illegal arrivals.”

” Quack, quack, o.k.”said Fat Louie.” In order to help my fellow ducks, I will also help the other birds, even though they don’t help us, or work for the common good.”

” That’s the spirit,” encouraged Earl Grey

As a good citizen of Duck, Fat Louie continued to pay his mortgage. The drought and the recession among humans caused many of the humans to move away. The Complex and Snapfinger Woods Lake became somewhat rundown, and more humans moved away.

With the humans leaving the easy food became more scarce, and Fat Louie was now sharing his wealth with thousands of illegan birds from Mexico.

The good news is that Fat Louie lost weight due to scarcity.

His gout went away.

He met a pretty Daisy Duck, and what happened next is a story for another day.

Posted in Current Events, Just An Observation, New Articles, Quality of Life, just life, parable | No Comments »

Fat Louie, a Duck With Gout, a Parable about Fowl Health Care

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Louie was an old fat fluffy white duck.

He lived in a small private lake east of Atlanta. The lake was man made as an amenity for a small condominium community of two story rustic wooden apartments, known as Snapfinger Woods Estates.

The Lake was appropriately named Snapfinger Woods Lake.

At one time, when Louie was younger, he was the head duck of the small flock which claimed Snapfinger Lake as their year round private residence.

During the Spring, the flock consisted of 12 - 14 adults, and would expand to 18 - 20 by the end of Summer.As the young left during the Fall and Winter, the flock would settle back to the core members, looking to Louie for leadership and content with the easy life of a controlled environment.

The human residents of Snapfinger Woods Apartments would regularly feed Louie and his flock. Children loved to throw bread and cake crumbs into the lake, laughing with glee as Louie and his companions raced to be the first to reach and consume the morsels.

Louie being the lead duck, was the strongest and fastest swimmer of the flock.

When the humans threw food into the lake, Louie was always the first to get there, and invariably, he would eat and eat and eat. Only when he was stuffed would the rest of the flock get a chance at the bread , cake, and other delicacies offered.

Louie loved to show off how fast he could swim.

As the seasons passed, Louie found himself growing older and fatter. He was consuming increasingly large quantities of human food, and his once sleek muscular body began to expand, turning to duck flab.

One morning Louie woke from a deep sleep, his right foot pulsing with a dull throb. He tried to ignore the pain, quacking loudly to let his human providers know that he was awake and hungry.

He moved his webbed feet, as ducks do, to begin swimming, while flapping his wings for speed and stability.

The pain in his foot intensified to a steady throb, and Louie was forced to stop trying to swim.

The other drakes, noticing Louie’s plight, began quacking and swimming in circles. When the humans threw food, they quickly chased after the breakfast, leaving Louie sitting dead in the water.

One human began throwing bread towards Louie , attempting to help him get a chance at some food.

He slowly and painfully paddled towards the bread, but the other ducks seeing his movement, turned and headed towards the floating food.

First one and then another of the young males bumped into Louie, roughly shoving him out of the way.

“Quack, Quack, you’re damaged. ” They shouted,” You get no food. Only healthy ducks get to stay with the flock.”

” Why?” croaked Louie, feeling hungry and somewhat frightened. ” I’m lead duck.”

” Not anymore,” They quacked in unison,” Damaged ducks can not be part of the flock, Haven’t you ever heard of Charles Darwin, or Survival of the fittest? ”

Sadly, for the first time in his life, Louie felt alienated and alone.He had become a victim of his position of lead duck, He had been too good and too competitive. He had always been first to get fed, earning human applause and rewards for being the best and the fastest.

Sadly, now, his reward for being more successful and competitive was a very painful case of the gout.

The other ducks had always resented his success.

Louie was forced to leave the pond which he had ruled for most of his life.

Louie was faced with the most humiliating punishment possible for being a successful duck. He was banished from the flock and forced to live on land, painfully waddling along the edge of the lake, his gout swollen right foot, a symbol of his fall from mediocrity.

He went to the next flock meeting of the Greater Atlanta Duck Association(GADA) to ask for help.

A large Gander, with a very long neck and narrow limpid brown eyes looked down his beak at the obviosly uncomfortable Louie, balancing unsteadily on his good leg.

“Stand still and lower your eyes when addressing GADA. ” He huffed with disdain. ” We have very limited resources to cure injured ducks, especially older fat ducks such as yourself.”

He paused, looking very annoyed that Louie had had the nerve to ask the council for a cure, “We find you too old. The cure will be too expensive and must be saved for more worthy younger members of the flock. Henceforth you will be known as Fat Louie, and will be forced to live out the rest of your days on land, so as not to contaminate or hinder the rest of the masses.”

Fat Louie lived for several more seasons, largely at the largess of the human residents of Snapfinger Woods Apartments. His wealth and position was spread among the others in his pond.

Once again the system had worked. The good of the many superceded the good of the individual.

When the humans took pity on Fat Louie and continued to feed him on land, many of them lost interest in the ducks still in the pond and ceased feeding them.

A human recession helped to bankrupt Snapfinger Estates, and the complex was sold to a developer who drained the pond and built a small office building and parking lot where the pond had been.

Fat Louie continued to live on dry land and the secretaries took pity on the fat duck with the bad right foot, and continued to feed him cakes and cookies, until his death from escalated cholesterol several summers later.

Moral of the Story: Sometimes being the best and the fastest gets you promoted to your own exclusive club.

And sometimes it’s a pain in the . a.. foot.

Posted in Current Events, New Articles, Quality of Life, The moral of the story, just life, parable | 10 Comments »

O K We Have our first Black President, Now What

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Well O K , the excitement and novelty is over.

We now have our first Black President. Now what happens?

Will he walk on water?

Will he outhustle Magic Johnson on the B Ball court?

Will he restore World peace?

Is the Recession over?

Is the U S Banking system stabilized yet?

How about our two wars. Are the troops home from Iraq yet? Have we killed or captured Binladen?

Whats takeing so long?

Where is the complaint department? Do I take a number or is this being run digitally?

The World has been led to believe that our new President is magic, oops, that can’t be, Magic’s last name is Johnson

Good luck Mr President, you’ll need it. You have the world convinced that you are the Messiah, what are you going to do for an encore.

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The Adventures of Charlie Champion