Michael T. Burns

BULL!!!!  I am so sick of this that it drives me crazy!  Everyone agrees that the government must do something to save us from this terrible “liquidity crisis”.  I don’t normally comment on politics, but I will now.

This is a shameful destruction of our freedom.  There is no other way to say it.  The money will come from us, there is no free lunch, the piper must be paid, etc.  Yet we stand by and allow these mortals to scare and bribe each other into placing you and I in indentured servitude.  It’s called debt.

This is absolutely ridiculous!  The bailout is no different than an individual who can no longer get loans because everything is maxed out, and then turns to friends and family for an “emergency” loan because they can no longer make their payments.  Of course, no one states that they need a loan because they cannot make their payments.  What your friend or family says is that their great investments are just a little bit away from paying off and if we just help them out right now everything will be okay.  The difference here is that our good relative, Uncle Sam, is not only going to make his payments but is also taking a great vacation to the Bahamas for three weeks on this loan.

I have personally had enough, I do not know what more I can do as an individual. I have called my senator, I have called my representative, I talked to my friends, and I have prayed. I fear that this will successfully prolong the pain, and character building that we have put off as a country for not only years but generations. The time has come for us to step up as individuals, and collectively as a country, to do something more than feed our gluttonous appetites and our insatiable desires for the next shiny token that draws our attention.

I won’t make any threats, I won’t call for heads to roll, I won’t because that freedom has already been taken away. I feel that the only option left is to join the same political class that is causing these problems. The challenge I face personally has many facets. Will I have the character to not become what they have become? Will I have the courage to speak my mind? Am I willing to risk my life, my family, my fortune?  I don’t know if I am strong enough yet, and that bothers me.

This is posted in haste, and you might say in anger.  Maybe I’ll figure it out.

We all have our vices, it is probably important to admit what mine is:  I have sympathy for machines.  I know that sounds weird, but my wife will confirm that I have a tendancy to feel bad when machines are abused or neglected.  This has lately manifest itself in the acquisition of a sad motorcyle.  It actually looked pretty good, but was not running so I was forced to buy it.  Cheap motorcycles are hard to come by so I bought it before checking with Ellen.  She once again did not freak out which is awfully impressive.

I have figured out that I have no intention of trying to get better.  I really do enjoy fixing things. I think I enjoy the contrast that working on machines affords to what I do on a daily basis. I love helping people with real estate problems but there’s something so tangible and definable about a machine that I find hard to resist.  Unfortunately, riding a motorcycle is a lot easier than fixing a motorcycle and so once again I have three sold the motorcycle once it was back to perfect running condition.

I have decided to monitor the number of conscious decisions required of me in a day.  Just to get my desk cleared off enough to start working required 32 decisions.  If I had gotten hung up on any one of them, I would still not be ready to work.

Going through email required countless decisions, but for a single message the following are required:  Open or delete, if open read or skim, take action or not, once read delete or file.  The biggest question is how many emails we read provide a chance for action?  If they do not require an action of some sort they provided only information.  Are we better for that info or not?

What is the solution to a busy day, that leaves you wiped out and many tasks incomplete?  I think that planning in advance helps, but there must be a key that I am missing.  Suggestions?