Do Most Of Us Feel Like Zombies In A Movie Or Is It Just Me

• What awaits: Does Heath Ledger's death have you down? Is all the Democratic candidate infighting leaving you with the strange feeling that they'll screw it up again this time around? Things are probably worse.

Today's chart comes to us via Bob Bronson.

Here's a comparison of 3 prior market crashes: 1930, 1962, 1987 and today. (Note that there is no guarantee that this will be a crash, or if it is it will be the same as those others):

1930, 1962, 1987, 2008

I Wish Life Could Be So Sweet

"Things" don't bring us happiness or contentment. I'd rather be in a certain "place" in life and have a lot less.

Sometimes This Stuff Just Writes Itself

President Bush pointing out the painting A Charge To Keep in the Oval Office.




As Texas governor, President Bush admired a 1916 painting by W.H.D. Koehner hanging in his office. In 1995, Bush wrote a memo to his Texas staff:

[T]he painting is based upon the Charles Wesley hymn “A Charge to Keep I Have”. I am particularly impressed by the second verse of this hymn. The second verse goes like this: “To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill; O may it all my powers engage to do my Master’s will.” […]

When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us.

But in his new book, The Bush Tragedy, Jacob Weisberg explains that the painting has nothing to do with the hymn and “circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century.” It actually depicts a horse bandit:

The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors.
The Illustrated President by Scott Horton

A Little Birdie Told Me Ronald Reagan Raised Taxes

Mitt gets a little history help from his friends?

After reviewing the tapes, NBC determined that an open mic picked up a whisper from the audience. It is unclear who it is that says it, but it was not said by any of the candidates, was not heard in the hall and, more importantly, not heard by the candidates.

Darn.

Oh Bill You Big Fibber

Fun Fly Friday

I think I'll call these days Fun Fly Fridays because anything can take flight.

Speaking of flight a new hobby may have been born. Mike had Bruce trying out the radio control flight simulator on his laptop the other night and he was having fun with it. As with Rocky and Bullwinkle sometimes the father and son, teacher and student roles are reversed.

If Mike can teach Bruce to fly the plane, I'll pull a rabbit out of my hat.

They Grow Big Ears In Texas

Have you ever noticed that. Too bad big ears don't correlate anatomically with say brains for instance.

Going Off Means Going Public

When I read the article in the paper this morning by Richmond Times Dispatch writer Michael Paul Williams titled "Your Tirade Now Has Global Consequences" it reminded me that the subject of the article was made into this video on YouTube.

"What would have been an angry exchange has been elevated to a national event."

These are the times, anything we do publicly can become subject to "upload". When my husband heard Mrs. Tistadt's rant he pronounced, "that sounds like you" (or something you would do). He's right. My threshold for defending myself or family against perceived attackers is low. I just don't put anything in writing or leave messages on an answering machine.