Recently by Richard Russell: Time
Over the weekend I gave the following a lot of thought. Does any of the following make me a bad person? I never cared at all as to which teams would be in the Super Bowl or which team would win. I didn’t like the Grammys and I didn’t wait to see who won in any category. I couldn’t care less who will win the Academy Awards. I’m tired of watching the entertainment business congratulate itself. I don’t really care whether Microsoft ever comes up with anything original. I don’t care if Sarah Palin becomes the GOP’s presidential candidate or if she doesn’t. I don’t really give a damn whether Michael Vick ever speaks the truth about his true sentiment toward dogs. I just think Michael Vick is a dog, a dirty dog. I don’t care whether Ben Bernanke (he’s the Fed Chairman) ever confesses that he doesn’t know what he’s doing with quantitative easing. Those are some of the items I thought about over the three-day weekend. And just in case you’re interested, I decided that I’m not a bad person. Below are a few more of my weekend thoughts. I like the Constitution of the United States. I am suspicious of all fiat currency. I think the US should print its own money. [????] I’m all for the gold standard. I like gold and silver. I like dogs, and I like aquarium fish, both fresh-water and salt-water. I loved my mother, and I was good to her (at least, I think I was). I’m an optimist regarding the future of the world (although I think we’re going to see tough times before we see good times again). I believe (assume) that there is a great and divine power, but I don’t like organized religions. I believe organized religions throughout history have done more harm than good. I believe that all men (well, MOST men) have larceny in their souls. I’m all for Arab revolutions. But the big kahuna, the really evil one, is stone-age Saudi Arabia, the ultimate cruel dictatorship. I believe a hungry man is an angry man. I think that in due time the world will go vegan. I can’t believe (it’s true) that we slaughter 125,000 cattle each and every day. If it’s considered uncouth to wear furs, why is it OK to eat hamburgers by the hundreds of millions each and every day? Germany was nearly destroyed by inflation. To this day Germans fear inflation. America was nearly destroyed by deflation. To this day, Americans fear deflation. President Obama is obsessed with being re-elected. So far, he’s done nothing to reduce the US deficit. Will Obama sell the nation "down the river" to get re-elected? Obama has turned the whole problem over to the GOP, which is cute. Will anything at all get done about the deficits? We’ll know before 2012 election time. Long ago, I came up with two expressions that fit every occasion in life – (1) Nothing’s easy. (2) Nothing works. And I’ve also come up with the two most difficult tasks in life – (1) To get the correct information about any particular matter. (2) To get anyone to do what they say they are going to do. OK, enough Russell nonsense. Referring to number 2 above, I said I was going to write a site on Tuesday, and now I’m going to do it. Retire, get-away, escape, stay-cation, vacation, time out, sabbatical, down-time, hiatus, lay-back. There are dozens of words in the English language to describe the act of ending one’s life work and relaxing and doing nothing during the precious years that are left. But those words may be ancient history for future US generations. According to an article in last weekend’s WSJ: "The median household, headed by a person 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one quarter of what is needed in the account to maintain one’s standard of living in retirement, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for the Wall Street Journal. Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most participants appear to have insufficient savings. Data from other sources also show big gaps between savings and what people need, and the current financial crisis has made things worse.
