What are the moral issues in motion now?

Watching and listening to the market news from yesterday and what is going on today, whew! The family or individuals who are actually paying their mortgages, made legitimate and affordable loans, will be carrying the weight of those who messed up. Did they not read the fine print? Did they have such a skilled, silver-tongued sales person urging them to buy beyond their means? Was the mindset one of "deserving" more bedrooms and bathrooms? Keeping up with the Joneses???? Or, was it caused by job loss and work stoppage perhaps...

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On the trading floor in Chicago Thursday, a reporter for CNBC, not a right-wing news station, Rick Santelli, just went ballistic about the very suggestion of being coerced into paying the bad debts someone else incurred, "rewarding their bad behavior". He had the traders who were in the room during his report marching around with pitch forks and spears, encouraging him to speak up on behalf of reason and capitalism. Even the traders see the fallacy of "co-opting", taking on the expense of those who messed up royally.

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Recently I was having a conversation with someone about the joys of my heated car seats. It seems those up north where heated seats would be ideal, it is not a popular option, but here in the South, it is valued. Some say the "cold" is different, but that is beside the point. I made the foolish statement that I could "never live without heated car seats"....

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It occurred to me what a truly ridiculous thing this is to say! How do I know that I cannot live without heated seats, or a rear window defroster, or intermittent wipers? How about call waiting? How about Internet connection?Is that not just way too much to declare I cannot live without it??!!! It seems that is the mindset of people now, that once we have had something, especially if was given to us, we do not want to NOT have it. Things have value to us, often, when they are taken away. Like air from my tire! When I had air in my tire, I took it for granted-----now that I had a flat, I no longer simply assume there will be air in my tires! The same goes for accountability, if you do not have to be accountable for awhile, you will certainly get used to be not accountable!

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My understanding is that there is a groundswell forming, other than the traders on the floor in Chicago, where folks are rallying to reclaim our nation, our freedoms. There was a commercial on TV the other night featuring a convertible car, cannot recall the brand, where the ad touted the fact that "America loves freedom", being free to ride with the top down....I nearly choked on my chocolate-coated popcorn. (A gift, not a foolish purchase...)What a ridiculous statement to make in the same week that the humongous government spending bill was endorsed! Supposedly the nation has 'elected' to "mortgage" our freedoms, liberties, independence for generations to come in order to get our shorter-term bills paid (or be the ones paying the bills!!!) by a no longer government of the people!!!

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Anyone????

And I did not even have a bad dream!

Last night before I went to bed, I talked on the phone with my sister, Lori, in Holmen. A bit earlier I had called her house and spoke with David who reported that she was still leading her Bible study, the one he referred to as "the bat coffee". He asked if I knew this story and I told him that was what I was calling about. Mom had asked if Lori told me the "bat story" yet, and she had not, so I had to find out what was going on. I passionately HATE vermin, winged or not, and was not sure I really wanted to hear the story. Did her cats do something or was a bat swooping around their lovely home? Had to know!!!!

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First David told me, and then Lori, about how, at their Bible study last week, Lori was cleaning up the coffee maker and such afterward. They have the type that is plumbed in, an automatic Bunn-style commercial coffee maker. She was rinsing out the decanter portion, I think, and looked inside just to see if it was clean. It appeared as though a napkin was left inside or something, so she reached in to pull it, and it was a bat!!!! Ewwwwww! The absolute height of grossness! People had been drinking coffee at Bible study which had been laced with a bat! What are they doing---practicing witchcraft at their church or something?????

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David teased me that I would blog about this and told me NOT to mention the name of their Lutheran church because they did not need any more negative publicity!

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Lori, after screeching her head off, tossed the bat into the garbage, but then decided she might need it in case the bat had rabies. She called the local hospital to ask someone there what to do, who transferred her to the ER dept. who transferred her to infectious disease control who referred her to County Health Dept. They, in turn, not knowing what the protocol was for bats in a coffee maker, called the CDC! I can just picture the red phone on the desk in Atlanta ringing and people putting on their haz-mat outfits to deal with an ole bat in a Lutheran church. That should REALLY keep them busy!!!! Anyway, someone from the County Health Dept. came to collect the cooked bat but said they could not do any testing since it was well-done. But, they did get the names and numbers of those who were at the Bible study to let them know what happened. The whole "picture" just makes me sick!!!! And I was all creepy from seeing a smashed rodent in the parking lot in the space right next to my car the other day!!!!

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Here is the warning: all old bats in churches, watch your back!