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OVERSPENDERS.COM (may 2008)
I hate walk-in closets. I think they are ridiculous. The idea of having a separate room for your wardrobe seems odd to me. Yes, you may say, but what do you do with all those clothes as they need to be organized. Sure, but in my eyes, if you get to a point when you're asking that question, it probably means that you have too many clothes already so get rid of some of them!
My (old, by all means) friend, when designing her house (her retirement home to be exact) made sure that she was fulfilling her lifelong dream of having her own walk in closet. Her husband got just a regular one, although he did not live long after that…hmm. She couldn't care less what shape her new kitchen was or the size of the living room, or what side of the world the deck was facing. What preoccupied her mind was a room to worship her clothes in with shoe racks for her shoe collection. How big was it? You could probably fit 50 illegal immigrants into it although they would all be in a pretzel position. And some go to the extreme… To have another closet, besides the one that you already keep your clothes in, just for shoes and shoes only, you really should have your head examined.
We condemn Imelda Marcos (ex-first lady of Philippines) for her weakness for shoes, but some of us women would love to copy her and others like her, why?
Is it because women watch TV sitcoms and are getting those silly ideas like ...excess of shoes will make you happy?
It's one thing to stagger by such behavior and another thing to applaud it.
I don't care much for the New Yorker but I do like their cartoons. I check them weekly, and there was one by Mick Stevens called "Consumer Alert." A couple is watching TV and on their giant screen it reads "Attention: The Wilsons next door just bought a much bigger TV than this one."
That's us, Americanos.
I'd like to announce that I'm proud of the fact that we still have the same TV that we bought 21 years ago. It's a Hitachi from Manny's in Wilbraham, Mass. Manny is deceased now but the TV is still going. Why would I buy a plasma TV or anything else like it, if this one is still working and its in good condition? My friends claim that plasmas take up less space, but the old ones still clutter their space - just a different space in the house.
Some goods we collect to keep up with the rest with the notion of paying for things that we do not really need being secondary.
Frugal Harry? Someone that I know traveled to both Italy and Poland. From Italy, he brought a rather kitschy painting done in some special technique, a piece of luxury that cost him $3,000. A souvenir from Poland (this trip took place several years later) was rather modest looking - a tiny wooden cottage that said ZAKOPANE on its roof. There was no story behind it like purchasing it from a poor Polish child begging on the street. Nope, it was just a cheap souvenir. There are wonderful artsy products in Polish galleries, silver jewelry (with or without amber), crystal glass, linen, embroidery, hand painted silk scarves, paintings of the Polish landscape in a variety sizes and prices, even armor, nicely covered photo books in English…items that beautifully represent Poland. But what seems to be the case is that the trip to Italy seemed to be attractive enough to spend an extra few thousand and brag about it while the trip to Poland, a business trip, I found out, was less attractive, is not, in some minds, worthy of spending more than several dollars on souvenirs. Somewhere between the lines, someone had to decide which trip is worth what.
At the gas station, some guy in one of those oversized trucks occupied pump #1 for a good 10 min. At first I was upset, but then I saw that his total was $167, so now I felt sorry for him. The guy is an addict - a petrol junkie. Petroleum addiction is a terrible thing, but as most addictions, it can be cured. You think the gas prices are too high? I don't. I think we were using too much of it anyways with some of us wasting gas because we thought it was cheap. We drove bigger cars than our neighbors, and we drove across the street to get a gallon of milk. Our youth drove cars to the mall just to window-shop and hang around. We did not carpool when it was the logical thing to do. Carpooling was so un-cool as that's what they do in those socialist countries…yuck. The gas was cheap, and we drove in style.
I know people who clipped coupons, shopped at Victorys'(a local supermarket) then drove 15 miles each way to Big Bunny (another supermarket) to save on meat products. Why? Because in their mind, the price of gas was cheaper than the price difference between meat products minus coupon.
We became addicted to gasoline and now we are trapped, and the oil companies like good dope dealers, or rather dope associates who don't give a damn as long they get people hooked.
When talking about overusing, it is hard not to mention drinking. Excessive drinking sometimes may have reasonable exploitation:
According to Ryszard Kapuscinski (famous Polish journalist and author), "In the Soviet Union, vodka had its own moral code. You had to show up at friend's house with a bottle. And once the bottle was opened, you had to finish it. And then, one drank to prove one wasn't a KGB agent."
("The Paris Review")
As a result, the headstrong KGB agents become presidents, and the life expectancy among Russian men is 59. The cause? Heart disease, alcohol poisoning and liver failure.
Moreover, either spending or drinking requires common sense and moderation.
We, the customers as simple folks are not the only ones overspending. Our government leads the way with much more moolah (our moolah!) on hand.
With taxpayers' money, Bush & Cheney's comrades built Fortress America for 700 million dollars (and still counting…), which is a massive bunker the size of the Vatican.
The US Embassy on Tigris River is the largest in the world with egos to match.
Where else did the money go?
We should know that bribing Iraqi police is not a good investment as they will always come for more. And we blame THEM for not doing enough… and the circle goes around so we're still there…
Once in a while, the army puts some representative of Iraqi police in front of the camera, who swears that there is great success but they are not ready yet to take full control so the US army should definitely hang around some more. Translation: Bring more US dollars. ASAP.
Where is the limit?
When do we say stop? Don't numbers mean anything to us?
How many more soldiers have to die before Americans understand that this war is wrong and should never have happened?
As we "entered" (or should I say, attacked, bombed and occupied) Iraq, we took off a guy that held all three groups (Sunnis, Shite, Kurds) together by an iron fist. The guy had nothing to do with 9/11. We come and we kill him after declaring him a number one dictator in the world, and we fight with the Sunnis, his supporters, relieving the Shiites, a religious group. The democratic elections that were supposed to fix all the problems and bring our troops home brought the Shites to power against the Sunnis. How does it relate to us? First, we had US soldiers fighting against both the Shites and the Sunnis, no Al Qaeda in sight.
Two years later, in 2005, the American soldiers were on one side with the Shites, and the Sunnis and now, the Al Qaeda are on the opposite side. In 2008 you have Sunnis and Shites on one side and Shites and Al Qaeda on the other with American soldeirs looking down in confusion. There is no progress, its just people moving around fighting amongst themselves. Now, five years have passed and we, the superpower, are still fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I put accent on "still fighting."
How is our presence in Iraq helping? Either we are there or not, and at this point everybody is fighting with everybody. The only people that benefit are those who make money on this war, and of course, they will fight to keep the business going, These are the lobbyists for military industry or companies that supply our troops with food or sunscreen.
That week when the media was preoccupied with the Jeremiah Wright comments, 49 US soldiers died. Did it make the news?
Although, there was some link between the pastor and war, Rev Wright was in Vietnam and Dick Cheney or George Bush did not.
I say stop the money flow, and the war will stop.
Whatever happened to the concept of saving?
The spending makes sense only if we can save more than we can spend. Our priorities got mixed up. Are we trying to outspend China? Fine, but they have money, we are borrowing ours lately.
China's economy is growing and growing, and so are their savings. To the Chinese government , our anti-China demonstrations seem like a mosquito bite, annoying but eventually will go away.
Thanks to the record high oil prices, our longtime adversary Russia is also gaining. It is one of the largest exporters of oil. We are talking about a country that was a bankrupt by a combination of war expenses and cheap oil. Russia's main source of revenue. As much as we love to believe so, it wasn't Pres Regan, Margaret Thatcher or even the Pope that defeated great Soviet Union, but the cheap oil prices and war in Afghanistan.
Now Russia has a trade surplus, which means that it's gaining back its power while in the US, we are deeper and deeper in debt that will have to be paid for by our children and grandchildren. Something to think about...
In a cartoon by Lee Lorentz, a weeping bank teller says to a customer who is making a deposit, "God Bless you, sir."
Do you think its funny?
OVERSPENDERS.COM (may 2008)
I hate walk-in closets. I think they are ridiculous. The idea of having a separate room for your wardrobe seems odd to me. Yes, you may say, but what do you do with all those clothes as they need to be organized. Sure, but in my eyes, if you get to a point when you're asking that question, it probably means that you have too many clothes already so get rid of some of them!
My (old, by all means) friend, when designing her house (her retirement home to be exact) made sure that she was fulfilling her lifelong dream of having her own walk in closet. Her husband got just a regular one, although he did not live long after that…hmm. She couldn't care less what shape her new kitchen was or the size of the living room, or what side of the world the deck was facing. What preoccupied her mind was a room to worship her clothes in with shoe racks for her shoe collection. How big was it? You could probably fit 50 illegal immigrants into it although they would all be in a pretzel position. And some go to the extreme… To have another closet, besides the one that you already keep your clothes in, just for shoes and shoes only, you really should have your head examined.
We condemn Imelda Marcos (ex-first lady of Philippines) for her weakness for shoes, but some of us women would love to copy her and others like her, why?
Is it because women watch TV sitcoms and are getting those silly ideas like ...excess of shoes will make you happy?
It's one thing to stagger by such behavior and another thing to applaud it.
I don't care much for the New Yorker but I do like their cartoons. I check them weekly, and there was one by Mick Stevens called "Consumer Alert." A couple is watching TV and on their giant screen it reads "Attention: The Wilsons next door just bought a much bigger TV than this one."
That's us, Americanos.
I'd like to announce that I'm proud of the fact that we still have the same TV that we bought 21 years ago. It's a Hitachi from Manny's in Wilbraham, Mass. Manny is deceased now but the TV is still going. Why would I buy a plasma TV or anything else like it, if this one is still working and its in good condition? My friends claim that plasmas take up less space, but the old ones still clutter their space - just a different space in the house.
Some goods we collect to keep up with the rest with the notion of paying for things that we do not really need being secondary.
Frugal Harry? Someone that I know traveled to both Italy and Poland. From Italy, he brought a rather kitschy painting done in some special technique, a piece of luxury that cost him $3,000. A souvenir from Poland (this trip took place several years later) was rather modest looking - a tiny wooden cottage that said ZAKOPANE on its roof. There was no story behind it like purchasing it from a poor Polish child begging on the street. Nope, it was just a cheap souvenir. There are wonderful artsy products in Polish galleries, silver jewelry (with or without amber), crystal glass, linen, embroidery, hand painted silk scarves, paintings of the Polish landscape in a variety sizes and prices, even armor, nicely covered photo books in English…items that beautifully represent Poland. But what seems to be the case is that the trip to Italy seemed to be attractive enough to spend an extra few thousand and brag about it while the trip to Poland, a business trip, I found out, was less attractive, is not, in some minds, worthy of spending more than several dollars on souvenirs. Somewhere between the lines, someone had to decide which trip is worth what.
At the gas station, some guy in one of those oversized trucks occupied pump #1 for a good 10 min. At first I was upset, but then I saw that his total was $167, so now I felt sorry for him. The guy is an addict - a petrol junkie. Petroleum addiction is a terrible thing, but as most addictions, it can be cured. You think the gas prices are too high? I don't. I think we were using too much of it anyways with some of us wasting gas because we thought it was cheap. We drove bigger cars than our neighbors, and we drove across the street to get a gallon of milk. Our youth drove cars to the mall just to window-shop and hang around. We did not carpool when it was the logical thing to do. Carpooling was so un-cool as that's what they do in those socialist countries…yuck. The gas was cheap, and we drove in style.
I know people who clipped coupons, shopped at Victorys'(a local supermarket) then drove 15 miles each way to Big Bunny (another supermarket) to save on meat products. Why? Because in their mind, the price of gas was cheaper than the price difference between meat products minus coupon.
We became addicted to gasoline and now we are trapped, and the oil companies like good dope dealers, or rather dope associates who don't give a damn as long they get people hooked.
When talking about overusing, it is hard not to mention drinking. Excessive drinking sometimes may have reasonable exploitation:
According to Ryszard Kapuscinski (famous Polish journalist and author), "In the Soviet Union, vodka had its own moral code. You had to show up at friend's house with a bottle. And once the bottle was opened, you had to finish it. And then, one drank to prove one wasn't a KGB agent."
("The Paris Review")
As a result, the headstrong KGB agents become presidents, and the life expectancy among Russian men is 59. The cause? Heart disease, alcohol poisoning and liver failure.
Moreover, either spending or drinking requires common sense and moderation.
We, the customers as simple folks are not the only ones overspending. Our government leads the way with much more moolah (our moolah!) on hand.
With taxpayers' money, Bush & Cheney's comrades built Fortress America for 700 million dollars (and still counting…), which is a massive bunker the size of the Vatican.
The US Embassy on Tigris River is the largest in the world with egos to match.
Where else did the money go?
We should know that bribing Iraqi police is not a good investment as they will always come for more. And we blame THEM for not doing enough… and the circle goes around so we're still there…
Once in a while, the army puts some representative of Iraqi police in front of the camera, who swears that there is great success but they are not ready yet to take full control so the US army should definitely hang around some more. Translation: Bring more US dollars. ASAP.
Where is the limit?
When do we say stop? Don't numbers mean anything to us?
How many more soldiers have to die before Americans understand that this war is wrong and should never have happened?
As we "entered" (or should I say, attacked, bombed and occupied) Iraq, we took off a guy that held all three groups (Sunnis, Shite, Kurds) together by an iron fist. The guy had nothing to do with 9/11. We come and we kill him after declaring him a number one dictator in the world, and we fight with the Sunnis, his supporters, relieving the Shiites, a religious group. The democratic elections that were supposed to fix all the problems and bring our troops home brought the Shites to power against the Sunnis. How does it relate to us? First, we had US soldiers fighting against both the Shites and the Sunnis, no Al Qaeda in sight.
Two years later, in 2005, the American soldiers were on one side with the Shites, and the Sunnis and now, the Al Qaeda are on the opposite side. In 2008 you have Sunnis and Shites on one side and Shites and Al Qaeda on the other with American soldeirs looking down in confusion. There is no progress, its just people moving around fighting amongst themselves. Now, five years have passed and we, the superpower, are still fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I put accent on "still fighting."
How is our presence in Iraq helping? Either we are there or not, and at this point everybody is fighting with everybody. The only people that benefit are those who make money on this war, and of course, they will fight to keep the business going, These are the lobbyists for military industry or companies that supply our troops with food or sunscreen.
That week when the media was preoccupied with the Jeremiah Wright comments, 49 US soldiers died. Did it make the news?
Although, there was some link between the pastor and war, Rev Wright was in Vietnam and Dick Cheney or George Bush did not.
I say stop the money flow, and the war will stop.
Whatever happened to the concept of saving?
The spending makes sense only if we can save more than we can spend. Our priorities got mixed up. Are we trying to outspend China? Fine, but they have money, we are borrowing ours lately.
China's economy is growing and growing, and so are their savings. To the Chinese government , our anti-China demonstrations seem like a mosquito bite, annoying but eventually will go away.
Thanks to the record high oil prices, our longtime adversary Russia is also gaining. It is one of the largest exporters of oil. We are talking about a country that was a bankrupt by a combination of war expenses and cheap oil. Russia's main source of revenue. As much as we love to believe so, it wasn't Pres Regan, Margaret Thatcher or even the Pope that defeated great Soviet Union, but the cheap oil prices and war in Afghanistan.
Now Russia has a trade surplus, which means that it's gaining back its power while in the US, we are deeper and deeper in debt that will have to be paid for by our children and grandchildren. Something to think about...
In a cartoon by Lee Lorentz, a weeping bank teller says to a customer who is making a deposit, "God Bless you, sir."
Do you think its funny?
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