Thursday, June 25, 2009

The President


Whether you are a fan or foe of Bush or Obama -- or like me -- think they are virtually one-in-the-same, you have to find this pic a bit creepy. I found it as someone's profile picture on Facebook.

While on the subject of "sameness", I came across this Jon Stewart bit from a couple of months ago. Talk about creepy...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I refuse to let money define my life

I ran this in my column this week. Thought I drop in here as well.

All this news about the sagging economy finally went over my head.

It's not that I can't understand it, or at least try to understand it. And it is not that the economic situation we find ourselves mired in is not important. I just decided I don't care!

Maybe its a bad attitude, and maybe it's a wrong approach, but I just grew tired of it all and trying to keep up with it. One day, recently, I just sat there thinking, "what difference does all of this make on a personal level".

The conclusion that followed was - none!

I have never been a big fan of money. It's not that I would throw it a way if I had it, but it has never really been the most important thing in my life. Where cash is concerned, I have only focused on it enough to allow me a comfortable life, rather than a posh life. I found family, friends, and nearly every other aspect of my life much more important than amassing piles of cash in bank accounts.

I wouldn't throw it away if I had a lot of it, and it would be nice now and then to be able to buy all those things that I don't need but can't live without. But I'd have to make a major change in my lifestyle to go after that kind of money, and frankly, I'm not willing to do that.

I have a philosophy, one that has been with me since high school, that would allow me to keep any windfall that comes my way, but won't allow me to chase it as the sole purpose of my life. That philosophy actually speaks to a time when I will be gone. What will be the legacy I leave for the life I have lived?

If, when we die, I hope we all get an opportunity sit back an look at what we left behind. I know what I want to see.

I don't want the sum total of my life to be measured by a bank account. I want to know that my life touched others, that my legacy speaks more to my actions as a person, than my ability to amass wealth. If I die with nothing but a large stack of dollars, how long will that be remembered, and who, other than those I leave behind to spend the cash, will have benefited from the fact that I once lived. That is not how I would like to be defined.

This late in my life, there is little threat of that happening.

This is how I would like to leave this world:

I would like people to remember the things I wrote, maybe some humor that I brought into their lives, or even something that angered them (there have certainly been a few of those).

I want to leave knowing I had a hand in making my community a better place for those who follow.

I want a lot of people to miss me when I am gone, because that means I was loved.


I want to know that I have touched somebody, made them think, moved them at times, and in a rare case, even made a difference in someone else's life.

I would find any of these things far more substantive than leaving my kids a few bucks.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Peter Schiff on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 6/9/09: "The Economy"

Okay. Nicole is sick of me always talking about politics and the economy on here, but this is just too good not to post. Peter Schiff has been calling things right along, especially concerning our housing bubble. And it is fun to watch Jon Stewart's wit amplify the stupidity of our consumer/debt-based economy. I guess, deep down, there is a little Austrian Economics in all of us, even at the Daily Show...

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