Monday, December 29, 2008

Scenes that make me remember, and smile

Young love, what can we say about it? It's beautiful and special, and wonderful. This is daughter Meghann who is nearly 21 with her boyfriend, Eric. They were able to be together at Christmas after being separated since August.
Eric lives on the Big Island of Hawaii, so Meg went over to visit both him and also Jenn and Family on Oahu during the holiday season. The joy in their faces is evident. Meghann is a very acomplished photographer, and she has taken many hundreds of photos over the years...she took some wonderful ones of another example of young and true love:
This is the love of young parents for their baby boy. Here, Michael and Jenn and Aidan are snapped by Meghann as they visit turtle beach on Oahu. Aidan loves the water and loves anything that is swimming in the water. Michael and Jenn love watching him enjoy the water as they both love it as well.
This one is one of my favorites on the day of the family outing to see the USS Arizona memorial. Aunt Meghann also has remained a Park Passport Stamp collector as have Jenn and us, and she got to collect the one for the Arizona, which is the only National Park on Oahu. Even Aidan has his very own National Park Passport so that he can start collecting stamps which are great for building and rememboring memories of visits to the parks. Meg let us know that she was planning on going to all 4 of the parks on the Big Island during her visit with Eric. I always feel like I'm looking at a picture of my own emotions when I was a fairly new mom...and I revisit the joy I felt at experiencing things through my own kids' eyes as I watch Jenn enjoy doing the same with Aidan.
Another beautiful sunset picture with the family walking up the beach. Thanks, Meghann, those pictures are fantastic. :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Gotta love the lawyers

United Airlines Sued for Passenger Beating Wife

The red comments are my own. :)

Boeing 777-200
Image via Wikipedia
A husband and wife are suing United Airlines for negligence, saying the drinks served them on a flight from Osaka, Japan to San Francisco, USA, fueled their subsequent actions.
“Fortified with Burgundy wine allegedly supplied at 20-minute intervals by United crew members during the December 2006 trip, Yoichi Shimamoto became so inebriated “that he could not manage himself,” according to a lawsuit filed Dec. 5″
He was arrested and accused of battery and disorderly conduct after he struck his wife six times. The couple insists that United Airlines is ultimately responsible for the incident, despite the fact he was sentenced to eighteen months of probation. They allege United’s “conduct was egregious because it knew or should have known that over-serving a passenger alcohol on an international flight would have negative consequences.”
Needless to say this incident discussion has been making the rounds of crews lately with comments. Mainly the consensus is "what a maroon".
We wonder about this. Are flight attendants supposed to be behaviorial profilers and determine beyond the obvious who should and should not be served? They do, like bars, cut off passengers seen as having too much. There are no details on the nature of the service given to him, how many twenty minute intervals, etc. Perhaps airlines should not sell alcohol at all.
Trust me, there is no way with the staffing to passenger ratios that we have that they could have been served every 20 minutes. And, when a passenger gets "overserved" we absolutely do, and must, cut them off.
The Shimamotos, and we’re surprised his wife is in on this ludicrous lawsuit, want United to pick up $100,000 for bail, legal fees, and the costs of having his probationary sentence transferred to Florida, where his wife had a home. They also want the airline to pay for “pain, suffering, loss of income and any other relief that is just and proper.”
United responded, stating, “We believe that a lawsuit that suggests that we are somehow responsible for the consequences of a passenger’s physical assault on his own wife is without any merit whatsoever.”
We have to agree with them. (I'm not sure who the "we" is in this article, it came forwarded to me by another flight attendant, but we ALL agree. Actually we all agree that it would be pretty funny if all the airlines got together and banned either of these idiots from ever flying on them again. I wonder if he'd beat his wife and blame somebody else for it if he had to drive or take the train or a ship across the Pacific everywhere he went.)
Ironically, the article we referenced goes on to point out the case would have merit in a bar, but because this occurred on a plane, there are issues of applicable law. Ultimately, we hope the case is dismissed as frivilous. Isn't life grand? That the case was ever even heard makes me wonder. Geesh

Monday, December 22, 2008

Pardon me, but I don't WANT to see more snow. lol

I landed at 2am yesterday morning because of snow in Chicago. We had ice here, I'm going to Denver today and hope for no snow so I can get back home at midnight (probably be late again) to do it again on Wednesday. If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd all hold the snow until Thursday when I'm home for a few days. And that way everyone could have a White Christmas AND make it where they're going. :)

An update on Gracie, she's doing a little bit better, she is now eating pretty well and doesn't feel quite as fragile when I pick her up...but she is still sleeping pretty much non-stop and she has a long way to go to get the meat back on her bones. Still, thank you to everyone for their advice and wishes. :) I'll post pictures when I get back from flying.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Wildlife experts ponder gender of Santa's reindeer

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer Betsy Blaney, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 19, 5:38 am ET

LUBBOCK, Texas – There may be a perfectly good reason why Santa doesn't get lost on his annual Christmas globetrot: His flying reindeer just might be female and don't mind stopping for directions.

The gender of Rudolph and his or her sleigh-hauling friends — the subject of goofy Internet chatter every year around this time — is now being pondered by renowned wildlife experts at Texas A&M University. "Santa's reindeers were really females, most likely," said Alice Blue-McLendon, a veterinary medicine professor specializing in deer who cites the depictions of Santa's helpers with antlers as the primary evidence. It turns out reindeer grow antlers regardless of gender, and most bulls typically shed their fuzzy protrusions before Christmas.

But Santa's sleigh helpers might also be castrated males, known as steers, said Greg Finstad, who manages the Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Young steers finish shedding their antlers in February and March, just as non-expecting females do. Bulls generally lose theirs before Christmas, while expectant mothers retain their antlers until calves are birthed in the spring. This allows them to protect food resources through harsh weather and to have enough for developing fetuses, he said.

Sledders most often use steers because they maintain their body condition throughout the winter, he said. Bulls are tuckered out from rutting season when they mate with as many as a dozen females in the months leading up to December. That leaves them depleted and too lean to pull a sleigh or sled through heavy snows, Finstad said. Many females are pregnant after rutting season, which lasts from summer and into the fall. That would mean long hours of backbreaking work for an expecting Rudolph, as well as Donner, Blitzen, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet and Vixen. "You don't hook up your pregnant females to a sled," Finstad said. "That is not good animal husbandry."

But other aaspects of the Christmas story support the all-girl sleigh team theory, Blue-McLendon said. For example, would a boy reindeer really sport a shiny red nose that almost glows? "Females like accessories," said Blue-McLendon, who in 2003 led the school's cloning of a white-tailed deer. "I think that fits because females like bling. We like shiny stuff."
As for the reindeer games, forget the rough antler-smashing stuff. Blue-McLendon suggests a female Rudolph would be more up for "games of wit."

And as for the name, Rudolph could certainly still work. "Why not?" Blue-McLendon said. "I know women named Charlie."

A childhood memory renewed

Ok, you can knight my dear husband. He travels a fair amount and he always remembers the bring home something special for me. I lived in New York for a year or so when I was a child, and traveled there a lot before and after that to see my relatives. I fell in love with these cakes/cookies...I know they have many names but we call them "Black and White cookies". They're huge and cake like inside, with chocolate and vanilla/lemon icing on top and they're fantastic. Hubby flew home from Newark yesterday in a blinding snowstorm (one of the only planes that got out while the storm was going on) with a bag full of Black and Whites in his bag. :) Needless to say, as my waistline enlarges, my smile factor increases. I'm kind of glad that we don't live that close to NYC or these wouldn't be quite as special! I think it's not being able to get them all the time that adds to their allure. Excuse me, I have to run to the kitchen for more coffee and a Black and White for breakfast.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

So you can learn from my mistake

I am so tired of spam in my inbox that I can't even see straight. I have a business too so my email boxes sometimes end up with upwards of 3 or 4 HUNDRED spams in a day. And because sometimes customer email ends up in my spam box, I have to manually take a look through the spam folder before deleting. I don't open them, I just look at the subject and sender.

Well, I finally had enough of the horrible fraud spam emails that promise all kinds of money to be deposited in your account or via your atm card. I was tired of winning the various lotteries only I'd have to tell them my banking information so they could deposit my money. (I DO hope nobody out there ever gives out their information to ANYONE for things like this. Hey, I am pretty savy, whenever I get an email from a seemingly legitimate source, I never use their links to my account, I always close the email and go onto whatever website (usually on my other computer, too) through my usual website address. I've never had a problem because I am extremely careful.

So back to my mistake. I was feeling particularly naughty, so I went through my spam folder and to everyone that wanted my information I simply hit reply and sent them this message:

"Thank you for your recent advice of money you are wishing to pay me. Please send me your banking information by return email and I will initiate wire transfer immediately for the amount specified." No signature.

Of course, I didn't get the first return banking information from anyone. Go figure. But by opening and replying to their emails, they now know that my address is a valid one and I got even more spam of various kinds. (No, thank you, but I don't need my privates to be any bigger). So, learn your lesson here from me...don't ever even open spams. There is a way that the spammers can find out if you've even opened their spam. And don't reply. And for goodness sakes, never, ever click on anything you find in an email from someone you don't know well, that's how you get virus and worm programs into your computer. Even then, a spammer can capture an email address and make it seem like you're getting email from someone you know. Spammers can send emails from their own address and mask them to seem like they're from another email address. Be cautious. Just delete it.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

We wish you

We wish you and yours a very happy Holiday season. Mom is going to make cookies over the next couple of days to take with us to our dear friends' home for Christmas and we're excited! Mom planted some cat grass in a planter for us this morning, and we even have our very own tiny little Christmas tree in the living room, complete with lights and stockings for us three kittys.
We hope that you and your family and friends enjoy this season of good cheer. We're hoping for some Catnip under the tree. :) (Though we haven't been totally good this year, hissing at our new sister, Gracie. We promise to try to be better, Santa, honest!)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

go figure

The vet said the bloodwork on Gracie is normal. It's probably a parasite or something in her GI system. We're waiting to see if she continues to lose weight, or if she begins to start to improve from the meds. We're hoping for the best. :)

Waiting for the phone to ring

This was a tough weekend for Gracie...she wasn't doing very well. Monday I took her to the vet first thing because she'd had diarrhea for more than 2 days. Turns out it was good that symptom happened because when she was weighed, she had lost about half a pound in a week. While that wouldn't even be significant in a person's weight, to a 6 pound cat, it's a lot. She's been eating well, and drinking enough water, even with the issues with keeping it in, this shouldn't have happened. She was miserable, especially because we had to bathe her twice in 2 days because of her long hair getting fouled. The vet took blood and samples and gave her all kinds of medicines to treat the variety of things that might be going on. Her sugar level is ok so she's probably not diabetic, it could be a host of things, including a parasite she picked up while living outdoors. In any case, I'm sitting here waiting for the vet to call, and she's upstairs sleeping as usual. She certainly exhausts me when I give her the meds twice a day, I'm sure she's exhausted as well. I'll let you all know what the test results are once I get them. I hope it's something that is easily treatable.

Meanwhile, Rosie checks on her frequently, very quietly creeping into my office that Grace has made her home. Belle is curious but she and Gracie still hiss at each other. Poor Gracie doesn't even have the energy right now to go after Belle anymore. I sure do hope she gets to feeling better soon.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Be careful out there



I know that my dh would never end up in the doghouse, but just in case yours doesn't understand, have him watch this. :)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A bit of Tabby Trivia

Tabby Cats and their beautiful patterns..

Tabby cats are often mistakenly thought of as being a particular breed of cat, but it is the coat pattern that is known as "tabby", and this pattern can occur in all breeds of domestic cat.
All breeds of domestic cat carry the tabby gene. Our feline friends that we know and love as house cats, originated from the African wild cat. These wildcats had similar markings to those we see on tabby cats, an effective form of camouflage.

There are many variations of the tabby pattern and tabby cats can be found with stripes, spots, ticks and swirls, and in various colors - brown tabbies, silver tabbies, ginger or orange tabbies, gray or blue tabbies and red tabbies.

The Patterns found on Tabby Cats.
Classic

It is this pattern that appears most often on tabbies. The classic (known as blotched tabbies in the United Kingdom) has large swirls or blotches that end in a circular pattern at the sides. Three broad lines run from the neck to the tail, and around the neck there are wide bands of color (known as a necklace.)
Classic tabby cats tails have broad bands, as do their legs, and the belly will have a row of vest button blotches. On the shoulders are patterns that are very similar to butterfly wings.

Mackerel- (our kitten, Belle, is a Mackerel Tabby)
Mackerel tabby markings closely correspond to the patterns seen on African wild cats. Some people suggest that mackerel tabbies should have been called classic, because their coat pattern was the original, and more reminiscent of the domestic cats origins.
Mackerel tabbies have narrow striped rings around their tail and legs, solid or broken stripes down their sides and one or more 'necklaces' on the front of their chests. Along the belly of the mackerel tabby you will find a double row of 'vest buttons.'
The sides, shoulders and haunches can show fine parallel lines or markings somewhat like the bones of a fish, which is how they came to be called mackerel tabby cats, (they are also sometimes known as tiger tabbies.)
Spotted
The dark blotches of the coat pattern of some tabbies are formed into oval or round spots. Sometimes the spots run in lines, this is often known as the interrupted mackerel pattern, however whether these spots developed from mackerel tabbies, or are a completely separate mutation remains unknown.
Spotted tabbies usually show a faint trace of a necklace and have a line of spots, or sometimes blotches, running from the neck to the very tip of their tail.

Ticked
Cats with ticked coat markings do not display the usual stripes, blotches or swirls of the tabby pattern and do not at first glance seem to be tabby cats at all. A closer look will show that the hairs are in fact striped with light and dark colored bands, these are known as agouti hairs, most tabbies will have some agouti hairs that make up part of their coat pattern.
The faces of ticked (or agouti) tabbies will show the traditional 'M' marking, and ticked tabbies may show a faint necklace.
The Abyssinian cat is a very good example of a ticked tabby and their coats often appear to shimmer in the sunlight due to the agouti hairs.

Patched
Cats that have random patches of different colors are known as tortoiseshell (tortie), if the markings are tabby, the cats are called patched tabbies (torbie). Mackerel, spotted, ticked or classic markings can show in the patches, and the tabby pattern usually shows more distinctly on the head and legs.
Brown patched tabbies have patches of deep brown tabby markings and patches of red (orange or ginger) tabby markings. Blue patched tabbies have patches of soft blue (gray) tabby markings and patches of cream tabby markings.



How did Tabby Cats get their 'M'?
(Our calico, Rosie, has an orange tabby head under the "chocolate sauce" complete with the Tabby "M")
All tabbies have an 'M' marking on their forehead, and on some this mark is very distinct. The 'M' is often referred to as 'the mark of the true tabby'.
There are several amusing legends about how tabby cats got their 'M'.

The most popular of these legends tells us that when the baby Jesus was lying in the manger he started to shiver with the cold. Mary covered the baby with blankets but still he kept shivering. Mary then ask all the animals to move closer to the manger so that their body heat would warm Jesus.
The animals stood as close to the manger as they could but the baby Jesus remained cold and shivering. After a time a small cat with tabby markings jumped into the manger and snuggled next to Jesus. Before long the baby had stopped shivering and was sound asleep, contented and warm.
In her gratitude to the tabby Mary made the mark of her own initial, upon the cat's forehead so that tabby cats will forever remind the world of how they saved Jesus from the cold.
A legend from the Islamic world recounts that Mohammed had a tabby called Muezza who once saved his masters life by slaying a snake that had crawled up Mohammed's sleeve. Later, when it was time to attend prayers the cat had fallen asleep upon the sleeve, so to avoid disturbing Muezza, Mohammed cut the sleeve from his garment. From that day on all tabby cats were born with the 'M' marking on their forehead to remind all that see them that Mohammed loved cats, and that cats should always be respected.
(We think it's because these cats wanted to come live with us, and our last name starts with "M". After all, Belle did adopt us out of all the other cars she could have been hiding under, then Rose won our hearts. I wanted an orange tabby when I went to adopt a 2nd kitten, and she's an orange tabby underneath the spots.)

Why are they called Tabby?
The name tabby is believed to have come from the word atabi a type of silk spun in the Attabiah region of Baghdad. This silk was exported in large quantities to the British Isles where it was noticed how similar the stripped pattern was to the coat of the tiger cat.
These tiger cats soon started to be called tabbi cats and later tabby cats.
Have a good look at the coat patterns of tabbies, often you will find wonderful arrangements of swirls, stripes and spots. A colorful tabby can be a display of cat art on four feline legs!
Too often tabbies are thought of as semi-feral alley cats and deemed to be low in cat hierarchy. Anybody that has ever shared their home with a tabby will know how amusing, intelligent, and warmly affectionate, beautiful tabby cats can be.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A rainy afternoon

funny pictures of cats with captions
more animals
I just spent several hours in the pouring rain doing errands, and this was pretty appropriate. :)

Lots of hissing going on

An update on the new cat (Grace)...she is very scary acting, hissing each time she sees either of the kittens. I guess she's spent so much time outside defending herself that she thinks they're going to hurt her, but Belle and Rose just are curious and want to probably sniff her and play with her. Everyone is loose in the house right now whenever I'm able to supervise, but they don't really interact, I suppose in time everyone is going to realize that they're all living here together and they can get along.

After doing some searching, I've found a breed that Grace looks like, the "Chantilly-Tiffany" breed. She is most likely a cross breed, as that breed has the characteristic chocolate brown with black coat, but she has brilliant green eyes whereas the C-T cats are bred for yellow or amber eye color. Grace has all the characteristics as well as the fur wisps in the ears and other things that are specific to the breed, and the good news is that these cats are not shedders. They are known as allergy-friendly. I've noticed that except when I've been grooming her and therefore pulling dead haid out, I don't find any cat hair where she has been resting.
She made herself at home last night on the sofa, right next to my leg. She purrs constantly, and loves to be petted, but she tires quickly and then just wants to lie close but be left alone. She's still mostly hungry, cautious, and exhausted, wanting to sleep a lot of the time. She had 3 shots on Sunday which could make her tired, and I'm sure that her body is recuperating from her time outside.


Sunday, December 07, 2008

Don't start

Just so you know, 3 cats does not qualify me for "Crazy Cat Lady" status. So don't even start with me. This is a rescue of a lovely lady that would have died outdoors from the elements, starvation, or another animal.

This small cat that I thought was a kitten started appearing around the woods by our house about 3 or 4 weeks ago. She was pretty curious but skittish. There are all kinds of animals in the small patch of woods behind our house, deer, foxes, racoon, squirrels, possums, bunnies, chipmunks, and probably others that I haven't even seen, and occasionally we or the neighbors hear a scream of an animal being "dinner" for another. There are also a couple of cats whose owners let them roam despite the ordinance in this county that they must not be let out for their own safety and also for the prevention of disease, but she was obviously not owned. I'm not on a farm, I live in a townhouse in a residential neighborhood in the suburbs, so there is no need for "mousers" like if you had a barn on your property. Cats around here should be kept indoors, it's smart, and it's the law.
Long story longer, this kitty kept coming up on our deck and eventually she let me touch her, I found that she was skin and bones. I could feel not only the ribs, but between them. I started putting kibble out for her about a week ago, and she was ravenous. I put out some canned food that my kittens didn't finish and she loved it, she also was exceedingly thirsty so I put out water and tried to keep it from freezing. Her fairly long coat was sunburned and matted, and she had sores on her skin, and I finally was able to touch her enough to pull off a tick. (ewwww) I worried about her in the cold and last night it snowed so it really made me worry about her keeping warm enough. I couldn't stand the thought of her being alone and cold out there in the snow so I put out some blankets if she wanted to come back and sleep on them. I also got close enough to put on a dose of Revolution on her for the fleas and ticks.

I was very upset about her during the cold night and finally Mark and I decided that if I could catch her, I would take her to the vet to check. We certainly didn't want to pass along anything contageous to our kittens if we decided to take her in. She came back late this morning and I was able to grab her and get her into a carrier. Within 10 minutes she was in the car and on her way to the vet. Turns out she is a senior cat and doesn't have very many teeth any more. She tested negative for all the diseases they test for and got a shot for her flea bite allergic spots, and is pretty healthy despite being abandoned. She'd also been fixed so she obviously was someone's pet at some time. Dr. Benson said that people that get evicted or move are abandoning animals more often now with the economy being so bad. She might have been one of those abandoned pets.

I'm off to the pet store for some grooming tools and some senior food and she's going to spend a few days in seclusion in my office getting stronger and being smelled under the door by the other two. We hope to give her a comfortable and loving home to spend the rest of her days, and though she is smaller than our other two kittens who aren't yet full grown, we think she's going to be friends with them both. At least we hope so.

There's a special place in hell for anyone that would abandon a senior cat (or any animal) into the woods that can't hunt and even if she managed to catch anything, wouldn't be able to tear it apart and eat it for her lack of front fangs. Our first kitten, Belle, was found under our car.

We've decided to name her "Grace". Or "Gracie" for our grandson that calls the other ones "Bell-ie" and "Rosie". She certainly is graceful. And tired. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open long enough for me to snap a picture.

Time to count down to the next visit

Yesterday the day dawned early at Dulles airport as we drove Michael, Jenn and Aidan to the airport for their long journey back to Hawaii. Aidan slept all night and then slept in the car on the way, so he was all full of energy when he got to the airport. Jenn's Dad, Robert, met us there as he was flying to Denver shortly thereafter. Mark got a few pictures.Mark snapped this one of Michael holding Aidan with Robert...Aidan wasn't still for long, walking everywhere and exploring the entire C terminal! It's amazing how many people smiled and talked to the little guy, it was really nice.
Mark was sharing Aidan's Eeyore with him...Aidan grabs one of the ears and then the thumb goes in the mouth...Mark was doing the same thing.
Mark and I had a wonderful time with Aidan AND his parents while they were here. We're counting the days until we get to see them again...this time it's our turn to travel. :)



Monday, December 01, 2008

Great Article on the Financial Crisis we're experiencing

A person whose blog I read found this great article. The graphs and charts did not print out when I copyied the article, but I've linked the title line to the original website with all the information if you're interested in checking out the data. This is the most accurate explanation of what I believe to be the cause and effect of the financial crisis in the United States and indeed throughout the world. I hope you'll take a moment to reflect on what the author has said here, even if you initially disagree, he has truths that are hard to ignore. The parenthetical additions in italics are mine, as are the bold emphasis on some of what he said.

THE SHALLOWEST GENERATION by James Quinn November 3, 2008


The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice. Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.

Of course, not all Baby Boomers are shallow, greedy, and corrupt. Mostly Boomers with power and wealth fall into this category. There were 76 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1963. They now make up 28% of the U.S. population. Their impact on America is undeniable. The defining events of their generation have been the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Kent State, Woodstock, the 1st man on the moon, and now the collapse of our Ponzi scheme financial system. They rebelled against their parents, protested the Vietnam War, and settled down in 2,300 square foot cookie cutter McMansions with perfectly manicured lawns, in mall infested suburbia. They have raised overscheduled spoiled children, moved up the corporate ladder by pushing paper rather than making things, lived above their means in order to keep up with their neighbors, bought whatever they wanted using debt, and never worried about the future. Over optimism, unrealistic assumptions, selfishness and conspicuous consumption have been their defining characteristics.

Boomers are currently in their prime earning and spending years. A Baby Boomer turns 50 years old every 7 seconds. The older Boomers had a fantastic run from 1989 through 2004. Median net worth for those between the ages of 55 and 59 rose 97% over 15 years to $249,700 in 2004. Median income rose 52%. The younger generation between the ages of 35 and 39 saw their median net worth fall 28% to $48,940. Their median income dropped 10% over the same 15 year period. It is clear that all Baby Boomers are not created equal. Based on calculations made by the Federal Reserve, at least 50% of Boomers will not have a happy retirement. The bottom 30% will reach the age of 65 with net worth of less than $100,000. They will try to subsist in poverty, dependent upon social security and part time Wal-Mart jobs until they die peniless. The top 30% will retire to lives of luxury and leisure. The middle 40% will muddle through with social security payments the only thing keeping them from an old age in poverty.

We have become a have and have not society. Our economy favors education, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Those benefitting from a good education will make dramatically more money than the uneducated laborers. The top 20% of households make 12.5 times the lowest 20% of households. This ratio was 7 to 1 in 1982. The top 1% of households make 20% of all the income in the U.S., the highest rate since 1928. Does this statistic portend a decade long depression? The difference between now and 1928 is the huge household debt burden of Americans. This usage of debt by the poor has masked the gap between haves and have nots for the last 20 years.
As I drive to work every day in my fully paid for 2002 CRV with 110,000 miles, I have plenty of time to observe my surroundings. Sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway, I have noticed that the number of luxury Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac and Lexus vehicles seems out of proportion to the number of wealthy people in the Philadelphia population. When I see an older gentleman, wearing a suit, driving one of these automobiles, I assume that he is a wealthy executive who has put in his time and rewarded himself with a luxury vehicle. But, most of these vehicles are being driven by Joe the Plumber types. As I take a short cut through some of the more depressed areas of West Philadelphia, I see people talking on their Apple iPhones, Direct TV satellite dishes attached to dilapidated row homes, and Cadillac Escalades & Mercedes parked on the mean streets.

This is not exactly the world that Henry Fonda’s character, Tom Joad, described in The Grapes of Wrath:
“I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.”

When I see “poor” people appearing to live a more luxurious life than myself, I don’t feel jealous. The thought that goes through my head is: Which banks or finance companies were foolish enough to loan these people the money to live this lifestyle? These foolish financial institutions will never get their loans repaid. What does bother me is that the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi Bailout of Stupid Banks will use my taxes to buy these bad loans from the foolish banks. So, who is the fool in this scenario? The “poor” person got to drive a Cadillac Escalade for a period of time, the foolish banks got bailed out, the bank CEOs took home $30 million, and I lived within my means and footed the bill for the reckless actions of others. It appears that the fools are the Americans who lived their lives according to the rules. The anger is building. I don’t think the politicians running this country realize what true anger looks like. They are used to Americans being herded along like passive sheep.

I’ve heard many Republican ideologues blame the current crisis on the people who took the subprime loans for home purchases. I’ve also heard many Democratic ideologues blame the crisis on the regulators. The ideologues are wrong, as usual. If a poor person has no home, no vehicle, and no prospects; then a bank tells them that they can buy a $300,000 home, drive a $55,000 Mercedes SUV, and live like people on TV; why wouldn’t they say yes? What is their downside? If you have nothing and “The Man” offers you the American dream, you’d actually be foolish to say no. Now that they have lost the home in foreclosure and the repo man has taken the Mercedes, they are exactly where they were a few years ago with no home, no vehicle and no prospects. The regulators were certainly asleep at the wheel. They did not enforce existing rules, foolishly waived leverage rules for the biggest investment banks, and believed that the banks would regulate themselves. They were wrong, but they never made a single loan. The commercial banks, investment banks, auto finance companies, and credit card companies made the ridiculous loans to people who could never pay them back in the search for short term profits. Greedy Wall Street executives created an artificial market for the loans in order to generate billions in fees so they could enrich themselves through stock options and obscene bonuses. They spent their false riches on $2 million NYC penthouses, $100,000 Porsche 911s, and $5 million beachfront estates in the Hamptons. Based on the estimated $2 trillion of losses that our banks have generated, the CEOs certainly deserved annual pay 500 times as high as the average worker. There is no way an “average” worker could possibly be talented enough to lose $2 trillion. You would need to be truly extraordinary to lose that much.

CEOs’ average pay, production workers’ average pay, the S&P 500 Index, corporate profits, and the Federal minimum wage, 1990-2005 (adjusted for inflation)
Source: Executive Excess 2006, 13th annual CEO Compensation Survey (This graph is in the original article, link included above)


The brutal necessary lesson that should have been learned is that if you loan money to people who can’t pay you back, your bank will go bankrupt. The “poor” people who made a bad decision in buying homes and cars they couldn’t afford have lost those homes and cars. The banks made a bad business decision in making those loans. The taxpayer was not involved in these business transactions. This is where Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and George Bush, formerly free market capitalists, decided to commit our grandchildren’s money to bailing out the horribly run financial institutions. Our government has chosen to allow these banks off the hook for their bad business decisions at the expense of taxpayers. Rewarding bad decisions and bad behavior will lead to more bad decisions and more bad behavior. The government has made a dreadful decision that will haunt our country for generations. Now the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates to 1% again. This is where this horrible nightmare started. The massive printing of currency throughout the world will ultimately lead to a hyperinflationary bust. The law of unintended consequences can be devastating.

Early in the 1st Reagan administration Americans saved 12% of their income and household debt as a percentage of GDP was 63%. In 1980, the oldest Baby Boomers turned 34. They entered their prime earnings and spending years. This is when something went haywire with our great country. Deficit spending became fashionable for government, corporations and individuals. Dick “deficits don’t matter” Cheney was probably in his glory as the country ran up deficits of money, morals, and brains. The Boomers and our government chose to try and borrow and spend their way to prosperity. As we now know, Mr. Cheney’s advice about deficits not mattering was about as good as his belief that you can fire a shotgun in any direction without implications. The Boomer generation has freely made choices over the last quarter century that has brought us to the brink of a second Great Depression.

During the current Bush administration, Americans’ savings rate actually went below zero, while household debt as a percentage of GDP soared above 130%, a doubling in 25 years. These figures prove that the apparent prosperity of the last 25 years was an illusion. Beginning in 1982, Baby Boomers chose to take the easy road. Saving, investing and living within your means were cast aside as “Old School”. Boomers were handed a better future through the blood, sweat and tears of the “Greatest Generation”. Through their hubris, they’ve squandered that better future, the future of their children and imperiled our entire capitalist system. Between 1989 and 2007, credit-card debt soared from $238 billion to $937 billion, a 300% increase. Household liabilities that are in delinquency or default totaled $775 billion at the end of June, according to CreditForecast.com data. This is equal to 7.5% of all U.S. household debt, up from 3% just two years ago. In the last five years, our live for today Boomers, sucked over $3 trillion of equity out of their homes to fund their selfish lifestyles. At the end of June, there were 2.72 million mortgage loans in default at an annualized rate. For all of 2008, defaults will hit 3 million, up from approximately 1.5 million in 2007, and 1 million in 2006.

What “essentials” do the Boomers invest all this borrowed money in every year? The U.S. Census bureau provides the answers:
$200 billion on furniture, appliances ($1,900 per household annually)
(huh? ANNUALLY? What happened to hand me down furniture and spending reasonable amounts on furniture, etc and then living with it? Appliances do have to be replaced occasionally, certainly, but this amount is incredible if you think of the waste! What is this? Electronics are in a grouping all their own.)
$400 billion on vehicle purchases ($3,800 per household annually)
$425 billion at restaurants ($4,000 per household annually)
$9 billion at Starbucks ($85 per household annually) (This number seems quite low when you see the lines at Starbucks all the time. A single one of the coffee drinks that my significant other gets is nearly $5. so I'm sure that brings our household up to way over $85 a year. And I don't like Starbucks! I'd rather take a travel mug of coffee along from home.)
$250 billion on clothing ($2,400 per household annually)
$100 billion on electronics ($950 per household annually)
$60 billion on lottery tickets ($600 per household annually)
$100 billion at gambling casinos ($950 per household annually)
$60 billion on alcohol ($600 per household annually) (Alcohol used always goes up when the economy goes down and unemployment becomes higher. )
$40 billion on smoking ($400 per household annually) (And that doesn't even start to pay the bills the insurance companies and taxpayers pay for health issues directly attributable to smoking!)
$32 billion on spectator sports ($300 per household annually)
$150 billion on entertainment ($1,400 per household annually)
$100 billion on education ($950 per household annually) (Hmmm, we contribute to charity. And I like to see that the households of this country do too...but the amount spent on education seems paltry when compared to charity. Perhaps that's because many baby boomers now have empty nests and no longer pay for education...??? I guess we're spending so much on new TV's and Ipods that nobody has anything left for eduction? What a shame.)
$300 billion to charity ($2,900 per household annually)

The priorities of our Boomer led society are clearly born out in the above figures. We spend more eating out than we give to charity. We spend as much on big screen TVs and stereos as we do on education. This may explain why 37 million (12.5%) of all Americans live in poverty and our high school students trail the students of 25 other countries (including Latvia) in science and math knowledge. Our school system processes many more clueless morons who don’t know the candidates for President, versus intelligent, thoughtful, hard working, driven young people. The $160 billion spent on gambling is indicative of the get rich quick without hard work attitude of the Boomer generation. Even worse, households with income under $13,000 spend, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all their income. Our government feeds this addiction by siphoning off billions in taxes from these gambling revenues to redistribute as they see fit.

What the data proves is that Boomers love to shop and eat, whether they have the money or not. The top 100 retailers in the U.S. have 250,000 stores that generated $1.7 trillion of sales last year. How could America function without 31,000 McDonalds, 35,000 KFCs, Taco Bells, & Pizza Huts, 15,000 Starbucks, 7,000 Wal-Marts, 2,000 Home Depots, 4,000 K-Marts/Sears, and 8,000 Blockbusters? There are 91,000 shopping centers in the United States. The Advertising industry spends $275 billion per year to convince you to spend money you don’t have for things you don’t need. This generation lacks self control, morals, a work ethic, and savings ethic. Based on the recent actions of our government and corporate leaders, we seem to lack any ethics at all. It is immoral for the boomer generation to run up $53 trillion in unfunded future liabilities in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to leave as our gift to future generations, while we live it up today. Optimists like to point out that Europe and Japan have much worse unfunded liability problems than the U.S. That is like taking pride in being the best looking horse at the glue factory. In the end, we’ll all still be glue.

The 25 year Boomer borrowing and spending binge is coming to an end. The hangover will be really bad. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are trying to keep the frat party going, but everyone is passed out on the floor. The Case Shiller housing data shows that the 20 largest cities have experienced an average 20% decline in price from their peaks. The futures index predicts a further 10% to 15% loss in value. There are 75 million owned homes in the U.S. One in six, or 12 million homeowners, owe more than the house is worth. With further expected losses, 20 million homeowners will eventually be underwater on their mortgage. In California, where home price declines will be 40% to 50%, half the homeowners in the State will owe more than the house is worth. If you are one of these homeowners and can afford the mortgage payment, time will eventually bail you out. If you can’t afford the mortgage payment, you should lose the house to someone who can make the payment. This is the failure side of the creative destruction that is true capitalism. If the government steps in to subsidize and eliminate failure, the system will ultimately collapse.

Part two of the great Boomer credit contraction will be the collapse of credit card companies who have mailed out 27 billion credit card offers in the last five years. They are now reaping what they have sown. As Boomers could no longer borrow from their homes, they switched to credit cards to make mortgage payments and car payments. That well is running dry. The losses to card companies will make the losses in 2000 to 2002 seem like good times. Losses in the 1st half of 2008 soared to $21 billion. Losses are expected to total $55 billion in the next year and a half. This brings me to the latest outrage perpetrated upon the U.S. citizens by Hank Paulson and his Treasury cronies. The credit card industry, which collects 23% interest and $12 billion in late fees from consumers, is lining up to get their piece of the $700 billion bank handout. Capital One has just received a $3.6 billion injection from the American taxpayer, one week after projecting that their write-offs will be $7.2 billion in the next twelve months. This will allow them to send another million offers to more people who shouldn’t have a credit card. Why not? The taxpayer will pay, if the losses are too high. Why aren’t the pundits on CNBC outraged at this misuse of taxpayer money? Would the bankruptcy of Capital One hurt our country in any way?

The Great American Empire has begun its long slow decline. It may take a few generations to reach its nadir, but the poor decisions already made and crucial decisions postponed in the last 25 years by our Boomer dominated leadership has put our country on a path to a declining standard of living. The U.S. is like a punch drunk ex-champion boxer who still thinks he has what it takes, but is living off his old press clippings. He lived the good life, got fat and didn’t do the hard work required of a champion. A slew of young brash fighters are itching to take him down. It is just a matter of time. In our heyday during the 1950s, manufacturing accounted for 25% of GDP. In 1980 it was still 22% of GDP. Today it is 12% of GDP. By 2010 it will be under 10% of GDP. Our Government bureaucracy, which contributes nothing to the advancement of our society, now is a larger portion of GDP than manufacturing. Services such as banking, retail sales, transportation, and health care now account for two-thirds of the value of U.S. GDP. We have become a nation of bureaucratic paper pushers. Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system. The Baby Boom generation has invented credit default swaps; mortgage backed securities; the fast food drive thru window; discovered the cure for erectile dysfunction; and built bridges to nowhere. No wonder we’re in so much trouble.

Now that I have laid out our bleak future, I can tell you that, like Dickens’ Christmas Carol, this is only a vision of what might be. There is time to change our course before our ship wrecks on a jagged reef. David M. Walker, former Comptroller of the United States, at a recent Fiscal Wake Up Tour at the University of Pennsylvania, described what has been happening in this country for the last 25 years in one word – laggardship. The last six months have been a perfect example of laggardship. Our leaders have floundered from crisis to crisis, overreacting and blustering rather than leading. True leaders are proactive, not reactive. After not addressing our energy policy for decades, as soon as oil reached $140 a barrel, Congress lurched into action so their constituents would think they were leading. As our financial system has imploded, government “leaders” have flailed about with one rescue package after another and Congress looks for scapegoats. Meddling, tinkering, and non-enforcement of rules by Congress and other government bureaucracies caused the crisis that they are reacting to. Government creates the problems and then assumes even more power over our lives with their ridiculous “solutions”.
No one in Washington has shown an ounce of leadership in decades. True leadership requires strength of character, clear vision to see the future as it is, the bravery to make unpopular decisions, and the honesty to tell the public the unvarnished truth based on the facts.

The facts are: we have a $10.5 trillion national debt; $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities; a military empire that has U.S. troops in 117 countries and has spent $700 billion on a pre-emptive war that has killed over 4,000 Americans; a $60 billion trade deficit; an annual budget deficit that will exceed $1 trillion in the next year; a crumbling infrastructure with 156,000 structurally deficient bridges; almost total dependence on foreign oil; and an educational system that is failing miserably. We can not fund guns, butter, banks and now car companies without collapsing our system.

I truly hope that President Obama can rise to the occasion and become a true statesman and leader. David Walker lays out our dilemma:
“The regular order in Washington is broken. We must move beyond crisis management approaches and start to address some of the key fiscal and other challenges facing this country if we want our future to be better than our past. Our fiscal time bomb is ticking, and the time for action is now!”

Ultimately, it is up to the Baby Boom generation to change our country’s course. The oldest Boomer is 62 years old and the youngest 45 years old. It is time for Boomers to take a hard look in the mirror and rethink their priorities. It is time to cast aside the $88,000 Range Rovers, $1,200 Jimmy Choo boots, $5,000 Rolex watches and daily double lattes at Starbucks. It is time to live within your means, distinguish between needs and wants, reduce debt, save 10% of your income, make sure your kids get a good education, not try and keep up with the Jones’, show compassion for your fellow man, and possibly pay more taxes and get less benefits, for the good of the country. We must support true leaders like David Walker and get rid of the old time corrupted politicians who want to keep the status quo. Texas Congressman Ron Paul gives the blunt truth that a true leader is willing to give:
“Our government has lived beyond its means for decades. We now face a crucial juncture, at which we determine whether to continue down the path of debt, inflation, and government intervention or choose to return to the economics of the free market, which have been ignored for almost a century. Increased debt leads to higher taxes on future generations, while increased inflation diminishes the purchasing power of American families and destroys the dollar. No society has ever been achieved prosperity through indebtedness or inflation, and the United States is no exception. We cannot afford to continue our current policies of monetary expansion and unending bailouts. Unless we return to sound monetary policy, sharply reduce government expenditures, and realize that the government cannot act as a lender of last resort, we will drive our economy to ruin.”

The Baby Boom generation has one last chance to change the course of U.S. history, keep us from wrecking in a storm of debt on the approaching jagged reef and shed the title of “Shallowest Generation”.

© 2008 James Quinn
Bio: James Quinn is a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. These articles reflect the personal views of James Quinn. They do not necessarily represent the views of his employer and are not sponsored or endorsed by his employer. He can be reached at quinnadvisors@comcast.net.