Work

This academic year has started.  The kids come on Thursday.  I'm excited...mostly because I can't hear the mouse anymore, so I'm guessing he moved to the teachers' room next door.   Shhh.  Don't tell.  I hear peanut butter works magic though.  Speaking of unwanted animals, Josh was mowing today and found a 4ft long black snake hiding behind our trashcan.  So what does he do?  He spreads moth balls all around our house.  Great.  Now when you come to visit me, it will smell like an elderly man's sweater closet.

I'm also excited because with the start of school, football season begins.  This is one of the things I love.  So we're looking forward to sitting on the couch, watching college ball...and the Panthers on Sundays (since we cut cable...), drinking a cold one, the smells of falling leaves, cool air, and all sorts of pies and spices coming from my kitchen.  YUM.

Diversity

I read a story the other day that the newly formed debt committee doesn't represent the minority well enough and isn't diverse enough. I don't know the specifics of how many people are on the committee or their partisan affiliation but I know that there is one woman, one African American, and one Latino. Why do I know those specifics? I know them because the media makes it an issue or rather the writers and editors on foxnews.com choose to make sure I was aware of those statistics.

That brings me to my point, labeling an issue or situation as non-diverse is the politically correct way of calling is racist. However, labeling it as non-diverse makes it a race related issue. We choose to create racial tension by constantly focusing on race as a central issue in any given situation but in reality it usually isn't a problem much less the problem. We don't however when it isn't beneficial to our movement. For instance I've never meet a hunter that wanted to mix duck populations in the name of diversity because it just wasn't fair. I've never meet one that said White Tail Deer and Mule Deer should be moved from one area to another to diversify the population because them being isolated and segregated just isn't fair. I hear your argument already, they're animals and there is no need so I'll give you another example. Have you ever had a child ask you to move them to a move diverse class? No you haven't because it isn't an issue to children it's as issue we create as adults.

You can go to www.wral.com and view mugshots of recently arrested individuals in our county, I looked at the first 100 arrest today and 61 were African American males. Should we ask officers to be more diverse in their arrest? Should we ask them to move to a quota system that mirrors the community? 5 percent Asian American women, 3 percent Asian American males, 17 percent of this and 25 percent of that?

I then watched an episode of cops where the individual being arrested said it was because cops with honky redneck racist, was it that or was it the crack rock he had on him marijuana or loaded gun he wasn't licensed for?

My point in this is race is not an issue until we choose to use it to detract from the reality of the situation. Unless someone is blatant in their intention to be racist to assume something is racist is to be just that.

Good Day

Kane finally had a good day at school today.  No time outs.  3 Stars..and candy.  And no HITTING the teacher...!

Poop

So on my way home from school, Josh calls.  We decide kane needs more Pull-Ups.  So I stop at FoodLion to pick them up.  Only when I open the door to get Parker out, he has poop coming out of his pants.  It's already all over his leg and the carseat, so I say, screw FoodLion, I'm going home and changing this baby.  Guess what?  By the time I get home, the poop is all over his face, his hands, up his nose, in his ears, on his eyes, ALL OVER his clothes, the car seat, and yes... in his mouth.  I have never in my whole life experienced such horror. 

Disappointment

Today I came to a house without lemonade and without Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon. - Josh

Well...

Today I am THE groupie for Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon with lemonaid.  BTW...Still can't find the dang mouse in my classroom.  I know he's in there...watching me...

Freddie Maye, Fannie Mac, Bulls, Bears Oh My!

It's Josh now, we're alternating who writes to this and I'm not quite sure how to change the "author" so anyway here I go. I started the day with very little insight into the market activity of Friday, I consider myself fairly business/finance knowledgeable but I was in the dark. As I always do I opened up foxnews.com when I came into the office and read over the headlines, it didn't look good. I read about the credit downgrade for America, the anticipated "sell off" that was to begin at market open and the general panic that seemed to ooze from most of the articles I skimmed. I found that depending on how I wanted to feel I could find articles that alleviated my fears citing the ebb and flow of the market, articles that maximized my uncertainty and made me want to dump all my savings into silver and even articles that made me think there was a man in China angry at me having taken out a home loan four years ago. Then it happened, the market opened and the Dow Jones price dropped, 100 points, 200 points, 225 points... it was slowing but we weren't out of the woods. By 10AM I had eaten both my lunch sandwich and snack apple, my nerves had gotten the best of me I guess. By 12PM I had nearly forgotten about the market, I was doing my job but then the spare minute crept up on me. Three hundred points had been lost, 350, 378, 412....I started researching Friday's performance. How much did we loose Friday? Did they anticipate this? Friday was part of the top ten largest point drops in the history of the Dow Jones, where would today be. I became consumed by the dropping numbers, like watching you favorite team loose the game from the blow of the first whistle, you don't know the final score but you know you'll lose. I read about the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation in 1922 and 23, I read about silver prices and the best way to buy it, I read about the credit downgrade of America and what it meant to the US family. Where were we going? what was I going to do? I watched the price drop and rise, drop and rise comparing it to historical figures until finally I watched the final countdown of the market closing as if it was New Years Eve all over again. I was obsessed and as I called people who could care less to tell them what I'd witnesses I realized it doesn't matter to me. Yes in the global scheme of things it does, yes my interest rates and 401k will be affected, yes my clients will spend less but my little boy wasn't any less excited about his first day of school. My wife wasn't any less rested from her nap and my youngest boy wasn't any less interested in me holding him or eating when he wants to and sleeping when he wants to. Some may cringe at the saying "ignorance is bliss" but it is true, I pushed my son on his playground swing today and enjoyed the fresh air in our back yard and thought with God watching over me, my family surrounding me and a gun to fill my freezer(but maybe not aim to do the same) I'll be fine. For that I thank you big Guy.